State-run, Oriental Bank of Commerce plans to expand its banking network in the state of Orissa by opening five new branches.

The new branches that are likely to start soon will cover both the rural and semi-urban of the state. The branches will be located as one in Jajpur Road, two in rural locations like Jagatsinghpur and Bhadrak districts and two in semi-urban locations of Keonjhar and Rayagada districts.

Currently the bank has a network of 18 branches and one extension counter in Orissa and the commencement of these new branches will raise this network to 23 branches. All the existing branches of the bank have the core banking facilities and even the new branches will start under services that are offered by the existing ones.

The bank also plans to increase its ATM network in the state by installing 5 new ATMs in the current year. The bank already has 14 ATMs across the state and an addition of 5 new ones will raise this number to 19.

The bank has its branch offices in urban locations like Berhampur, Sambalpur and Balasore but it is strange that these locations do not have any ATM accessibility. "Installation of ATMs in these towns will be delayed because of the change in some policy guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)", said Purnendu Sarangi, the head of the regional office of the bank at Bhubaneswar.

However the bank's customers have a convenience of a series of technology based products that includes on-line operation of an account in any of the bank's branch across the country. Also other technology based services like online tax payment, online payment of insurance premium and online booking of railway tickets can be easily availed by the customer. The bank has also introduced a facility of submitting education loan application online.

Recently the bank had decided to expand in the northern states of India. The bank has planned to open 11 new branches in the states of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh.