Public sector lender, Central Bank of India plans to diversify its business operations into a host of fields in the financial services industry. The arenas also include broking which the bank plans to carry on through the recently formed subsidiary.

The bank plans to diversify itself in fields of infrastructure, interior as well as offshore expansion in areas of Asia and Africa.

The bank is also working towards refuelling its retail wing which holds 11 % of the total advances of the lender.

The lender aims to increase the retail lending portfolio to 20% by next fiscal, keeping focus on home, car and education loans, said S Sridhar, CMD of the bank.

He is quite optimistic on the growth of the retail loan book of the bank despite the fact that there are no teaser loans offered by the lender.

Affordable home loans has been targetted as the prime competency by the bank and it has also reduced the loan processing time to 1 week.

Sridhar is credited for the drastic improvement shown by the bank in its performance after he took charge. "There were gaps in the system and procedures. The bank was not visible, considering its size, history and linkages," he said.

The bank has a network of over 3,600 branches and only 150 branches are yet to start core banking.