Vijaya Bank proposes to have agriculture as one of its focus areas in 2014-15, says its CMD, V. Kannan. He said lending to agriculture sector now was about 10% of its total credit and this is expected to go up to 12% to 13% this year. During the last couple of years, the bank has built its capabilities for sectors such as retail and MSME lending and credit to MSME sector and retail loans in fact grew by 23% in 2013-14. The total business of the bank has crossed the Rs 2 lakh crore mark in 2013-14 and is expected to grow by 205 this financial year. Deposits grew by 23%, assets by 15%, Kannan said. The bank opened 159 new branches last year and plans to add another 190 or 200 this year.
