This decision was taken at a meeting of board of directors of Centurion Bank held here on Wednesday, bank sources said. The board would decide on other details of the issue such as the size and the premium in the course of this week, a senior bank executive said.

The bank, set up in 1995, is the only new generation private sector bank which has not complied with Reserve Bank of India's stipulation of making an initial public offering and diluting the promoters' stake to 51 per cent. In the original guidelines issued by RBI in 1992, the central bank had stipulated that within three years of being set up, the new private banks should go public. The first private bank was set up in 1994.

Some of the banks were unable to comply with the directive, due to various reasons and the rbi gavethem an extension. Yet another extension had to be given as the market conditions were not right at that time for accessing money from the public. Among the new generation private sector banks, TimesBank is set enter the capital market with its maiden public issue later this month. The bank plains to raise Rs 35 crore through its equity issue.While banks like HDFC bank and Global Trust Bank entered the market before starting their commercial operations others like UTI Bank, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank etc hit the market later following the RBI guidelines in order to dilute the promoters'stakes.