Public sector lender, Oriental Bank of Commerce has indicated its plans to expand in the offshore market also. The bank has made an announcement that it plans to launch its operations in Dubai in the upcoming three months. The lender is also planning to set up another four branches in other nations.

In the next four years, the bank aims to open three branches overseas so as to meet the need for funds by Indian companies located offshore.

The first amongst these branches is scheduled in Dubai at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). "We have asked for approval from RBI and we are waiting for the permission for the branch in DIFC. I think we should get the permission within the next three months. Then we will apply to DIFC," he added.

"According to our medium-term objective, we envisage setting up of at least three overseas branches within 3-4 years. We have not identified all the locations and the entire process of opening a foreign branch generally takes between one and one-and-a-half years," he said.

The plans for internal expansion that is in the domestic market has already been announced by the lender. This includes adding 500 more branches by 2012-13, of which 175 are scheduled this year.

The current branch network of the bank is 1,555 with customer base of 1.6 crore.

The bank has also entered into a MoU with UIDAI. Mr. Prabhu said the bank would provide UID number cards to all 16,000 of its employees and 1.6-crore customers and also to all 570 villages which have been allotted to it as per the financial inclusion program.