Banks must look at new avenues of income to offset treasury losses

By Our Banking Bureau | 31 Jan 2005

Mangalore: The chairman and managing director of Corporation Bank, V KChopra, has said that banks will have to look for alternative avenues to compensate for the income forfeited by treasury operations

Speaking at the annual general meeting of Bankers'' Club of Mangalore recently, he said the banks were earning handsome profits through treasury operations during the low-interest rate regime.

While the depositors seek higher rates of interest for their money, borrowers want to strike a deal for lower rates of interest. The prevailing competition in the industry has further aggravated the situation, he said. Chopra said that bankers should exchange healthy and prudent information among themselves to minimise bad assets.

A Bankers'' Club press release said here on Saturday that Chopra also stressed on the need to recover more to earn more. He expressed concern on burgeoning non-performing assets (NPAs) in retail lending, especially in the housing loan sector.