Following the decisions taken by many banks, Syndicate Bank had an Annual General Meeting to take a final call on Prime Lending Rate (the interest rate that commercial banks charge their most credit-worthy customers) and deposit rates. George Joseph, executive director, Syndicate Bank said that the decision will be made public soon, following the next RBI action and in line with other major PSU banks.

Speaking after the Annual General Meeting in Manipal, he said that the bank had declared a final dividend of 13 per cent for the financial year 2007-08 in addition to interim dividend of 15 per cent declared earlier.

He also informed that the total global business of the bank stood at Rs. 1,60,368 crore as on March 31.

He also spoke on the continuation of the bank's thrust on agriculture and priority sectors, with an increase in agricultural advances to Rs 9,332 crore and priority sector advance to Rs 21,841 crore.

Joseph added that the target of the bank was Rs 1,90,000 crore of global business consisting of Rs 1,12,500 crore of deposits and Rs 77,500 crore in advances. He also mentioned that the bank had undertaken a campaign to add half a million new women accounts within two months.

Syndicate Bank was established in 1925 in Udupi, Karnataka under the name "Canara Industrial and Banking Syndicate Ltd." In 1964, the name of the Bank was changed from "Canara Industrial & Banking Syndicate Ltd." to "Syndicate Bank Limited" and the Head Office was shifted to Manipal. Today, the Bank has a network of 1801 branches spread all over India, since its nationalization in 1969.