PNB will open its representative office in Dubai, board approval

PNB Dubai: India's second largest public sector bank Punjab National Bank (PNB) is now planning to open its representative office in the most popular of the Gulf countries, Dubai. After the opening of PNB's representative office, it will be easier for Indians residing in Dubai to conduct transactions. This has been approved by the Board of Directors. Now only the permission of the market regulator is to be taken. PNB will open in Dubai in the current financial year 2024. PNB Managing Director (MD) Atul Kumar Goyal told reporters that the bank has received approval from the board of directors to open a representative office in Dubai. The process of obtaining regulatory approval is ongoing. He said if all regulatory approvals are received in time, the representative office is expected to open in the current financial year. Last year PNB opened representative offices in six countries, PNB has two representative offices in London and Bhutan with a joint venture in Nepal, Myanmar and Bangladesh. He said the strategy to improve profitability would focus on expanding retail, agriculture, MSME (RAM) portfolio, providing sound corporate loans, controlling slippages and enhancing recovery. Also Read: Bull vs Bear: Bull makes investors poorer Focus on increasing current account and savings account Apart from this, Atul Kumar Goyal said foreign exchange earnings should improve and increasing non-interest income will also focus on generating higher fee income from sales of third-party products. On improving interest income, he said, focus will be on increasing low-cost deposits, 'Casa' (current account and savings account). He said that CASA as a percentage of total deposits stood at 41.4 per cent by the end of March 2024 and the target is to increase it to more than 42 per cent by the end of the current fiscal. The bank intends to keep the cost of borrowing below one per cent in the current financial year. Also Read: Anand Mahindra's stock pours in big cash, board approves PNB to open its representative office in Dubai shows how profitable the investment will be.