Indian Bank is planning to embark on a drive to increase its low-cost deposits

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to bring down its overall cost of deposits.

“We plan to increase our share of current account and savings accounts (Casa) deposits to 34 per cent of the overall deposits during the present financial year,” CMD, Indian Bank, T M Bhasin. The bank’s Casa deposits at present stand at Rs 28,051 crore, or 32.9 per cent of the overall deposits. Total deposits of the bank at the end of March 31, 2010, stood at Rs 88,228 crore, an increase of 21.56 per cent over the previous year.

Bhasin said the bank will also focus on growing its retail lending portfolio during the present year. The bank’s retail loan portfolio reached Rs 10,856 crore from

Rs 9,664 crore at the end of March 31, 2010. “We will try to increase the retail portfolio significantly this year,” he said. Bhasin said the largest component was housing loans, which reached Rs 5,307 crore at the end of March 31, 2010, against Rs 5,097 crore a year before, followed by personal loans at Rs 3,001 crore (Rs 2,651 crore), education loans at Rs 2,300 crore (Rs 1,696 crore) and auto loans at Rs 248 crore (Rs 220 crore).