Speaking at the conference, GTB's executive vice president, PC Narayan, said, "the tieup will enable our partners to check for availability of funds in their customer's bank account and/or shares in their depository participants accounts with GTB before they process and route orders for purchase/sale of shares. The bank will also enter into similar arrangements with other internet-trading and other e-commerce sites."

In the first phase the transactions may not be exactly real-time, but efforts are being made to make it so in the fastest possible time. The bank doesn't have any intention of setting up a payment gateway where many banks would come together, as in the credit-card system, but will be a partner in the payment gateway when it is set up. Through this feature, customers of any bank of the gateway can buy or sell through the internet", Narayan added. GTB will also be increasing its branch network to 125 from the current 74 branches. It will also be increasing the ATM network to 100 from around 40 by the year-end and to 200 by next year.

Narayan said that the bank does not have any intention of doing Internet-broking. The bank will receive settlement fees for the broking transactions while the portals will receive brokerage fees. Sharekhan.com's chief information officer, Neeraj B Bhai, said, "sharekhan is all set to introduce Internet broking within the next two weeks.

It is also in the process of tying up with other banks for payment gateways".