Central Bank to enter wealth management, credit card biz in H2 FY27: CEO
Central Bank of India plans to roll out wealth management and credit card business in the second half of the current fiscal to ramp up its fee income, MD and CEO Kalyan Kumar has said.
The bank has obtained board approval for the same.
“Now, we are in the process of issuing RFP (Request for Proposal) for onboarding those who are having expertise so that...we can start this business. In this year, I understand by middle of the year we should be in a position to launch this business,” he told PTI in an interview. Besides, he said, the bank is planning to launch products that can improve the non-interest income. For corporate customers, he said, “cash management services play a very important role. That product is under development with us and by August, we are going to launch it...We are having centralized forex sale through that LC (Letter of Credit) and LG (Letter of Guarantee) business and also forex business we are starting.”
To begin with, Kumar said, the bank would target its own corporate customers who are availing these facilities from other banks.
“Today those technological platforms are with us. That will be one area from where we can earn fee-based income and commission income. Additionally, bancassurance is going to bring in good amount of fee-based income and commission-based income this year and subsequent years,” he said.
Last year, the Mumbai-headquartered public sector lender had acquired a 25.18 per cent equity stake in a life insurance company and a 24.91 per cent stake in a general insurance firm. Following this, the new brand identities emerged as Generali Central Life Insurance and Generali Central Insurance.
In August 2024, Central Bank of India had announced that it emerged as the successful bidder for the stake acquisition of debt-ridden Future Enterprises Ltd (FEL) in life and general insurance venture.
The bank was declared as the successful bidder by the Committee of Creditors (CoC) for the sale of Category 1 assets of FEL in both life and non-life ventures with Generali of Italy.
In a bid to expand international banking business, Central Bank of India is all set to operationalise IFSC Banking Unit (IBU) at GIFT City in Gandhinagar in the first week of next month.
The public sector lender has already posted a branch head and groundwork is in progress there.
“We would be in a position to open our IBU branch by first week of next month. The bank would certainly mobilise a good amount of forex business,” he said.
Emphasising that the opening of IBU will be a significant milestone in the bank’s growth story, Kumar said, this will help expand international banking business and also enable Central Bank of India to provide specialised banking services to customers.
The IBU will provide the bank access to international financial markets and allow it to deliver a complete range of products to its corporate clients with foreign currency funding requirements, Kumar said.
The bank will offer a suite of services, including foreign currency loans, trade finance solutions, treasury and risk management products, and enhanced convenient banking solutions to its customers, he added.
