Padmakumar, who was in the city to inaugurate the automation of four of Federal Bank's 12 branches in Calcutta and Howrah, said, "We have talked to several key players in the credit card business. Of them, till now we have identified Amex for a co-branded credit card."

Federal Bank is also thinking of launching a gold deposit scheme, "principally keeping in mind the large number of NRI customers we have who would like to send gold to their near and dear ones back home," the chairman said.

The Kerala based bank had sought the Reserve Bank of India's permission about six months back.

Federal Bank, which started operations way back in 1934, now has a service network of 150 branches across the country. In the current fiscal, the bank is aiming for aggregate business of Rs 12,000 crore and an operating profit of Rs 200 crore.

In the year to March 31, 2000, aggregate business was worth Rs 10,497 crore and operating profit Rs 135 crore. The bank's net non-performing assets stands at Rs 490 crore, which Padmakumar hopes to reduce to 480 crore in the current fiscal.

Commenting on the bank's plans to enter the insurance sector, Padmakumar said, "It is a high risk business and at the moment we are merely looking for a distributor's role. We will go slow and see how the other companies do first. In my opinion any company which enters the insurance sector will have to fund losses for 6-7 years. We have talked to some American companies about this." Padmakumar, however, refused to name these companies.

Federal Bank has plans to enter the car financing segment but right now wants to concentrate on building up the infrastructure.