Public sector lender, State Bank of Patiala has come up with seven more new branches in the Bathinda and Jalandhar zones of the bank. The bank which is also an associate bank of the largest lender of the country, State Bank of India has taken this step to increase its penetration in rural Punjab.

The new branches are located in the districts of Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Amritsar.

Mr Ashok Nayar, MD of the bank said that the bank plans to open 20 branches in the selected villages as part of its financial inclusion drive. As per the drive, 11 branches would be in Punjab and 9 outside it.

All kinds of banking facilities would be provided by these banks. The bank targets to reach out to as many as 500 villages in this fiscal as a part of its financial inclusion drive of which 263 villages belong to Punjab. Over 150 villages will be covered by the Bank by 30th September, 2010.

Nayar said that the bank's focus would be on productive utilization of loan facilities along with timely repayment options so that the circulation of money remains consistent.