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Indian Bank unlikely to tap market before '09 Chennai-based Indian Bank may not tap the equity market to raise resources before 2009, Indian Bank chairman and managing director MS Sundara Rajan said on Thursday. According to the chairman, the bank will be adequately capitalised even after factoring in the capital requirement under the imminent Basel II regime. Indian Bank would need to adhere to Basel II norms as of March 2008, as it has two overseas branches in Singapore and Colombo. Banks without overseas branches would need to adhere to the Basel II norms after a year on March 31, 2009. “We may not look to raise funds from the equity market further before 2009, as we are comfortable in the capital adequacy front. We have a capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of around 13%. Of that tier-I capital is very healthy at around 12%. So, we have enough elbow room to raise resources by way of selling tier II bonds,” Mr Sundara Rajan said. Indian Bank had first hit the equity market in February last year. Consequent upon this exercise, the government holding in the bank came to 80%. He also indicated that a more than required statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) holding can be leveraged for funding the bank’s increasing credit business. Banks need to hold a minimum 25% SLR, while the SLR portfolio of Indian Bank, which stands at 34% is well above the prescribed norm. In absolute terms, it has surplus government securities — which qualified for SLR requirement — of around Rs 4,300 crore. “We can sell the surplus SLR portfolio when required and fund our credit expansion,” Mr Sundara Rajan said. The bank is growing at a healthy pace. Its credit business is expected to grow 25% in 2007-08 over Rs 29,000 crore of portfolio as on March 31, 2007. Its deposit collection is expected to grow 20% in this fiscal over Rs 44,000 crore on March 31, 2007.