Trissur (Kerala), March 16 (IANS) The Kerala-based South Indian Bank (SIB) Tuesday said it is targeting a business turnover of Rs.48,000 crore in the next financial year.

The bank said it planned to achieve Rs.36,000 crore in total business this fiscal, and the figure was attained by December 2009. The target was then revised to Rs.37,500 crore but the business had crossed Rs.38,000 crore.

'The positive growth trend augurs well for the achievement of the perspective plan target of Rs.75,000 crore in total business, 7,500 personnel, 750 CBS branches and 750 ATM centres to be achieved during the fiscal 2013,' said V.A. Joseph, MD & CEO of the Bank.

SIB has achieved a credit growth of 30.47 per cent in the current fiscal and a deposit growth of 23.69 per cent which is well above the industry average.

The bank recovered stressed assets to the tune of Rs.241 crore and thus exceeded the target of 225 crore for this fiscal with a fairly good margin, SIB said in a press release.

The gross non-performing assets (NPA) has come down to 1.46 per cent and net NPA to 0.39 per cent as of December 2009.

In the next fiscal, SIB plans to open 60 more branches which will take the total number of its core banking service branch network to 640.