Speaking to newsmen here today, S Rajagopal, who has joined Bank of India as the new chairman and managing director (CMD) on December 5, said that the non-SLR investment of the bank of credit nature as on November 20 stood at Rs 1,681 crore and the credit-deposits ratio stood at Rs 53.71 per cent. ``The bank's priority sector credit at Rs 6,344 crore constituted 49.2 per cent at September end, 1998. Export credit stood at Rs 1,718 crore or 9.85 per cent of its domestic credit at November 20, 1998,'' Rajagopal said.

BoI, which reported reduced profitability in the first half of 1998-99, would step up loan recoveries and reduce doubtful debt by about 30 to 35 per cent, said Rajagopal,who was earlier CMD of Indian Bank.

Though textile, steel and cement industries are now undergoing difficult conditions, BoI would continue to finance these core industries, he said.

Rajagopal said the bank has been in the forefront in technological upgradation with 515 computerised branches (290 fully computerised and 225 branches partially computerised) as on date. Moreover, 100 branches have been offering telebanking facilities with fax on demand and remote access terminal at 14 branches to its corporate customers. ``The bank has installed 10 ATMs in Mumbai and 12 ATMs are being installed at nine other centres in the country,'' he said.

The bank has 2,504 branches (2,485 branches in India and 19 branches abroad) at November-end 1998. The domestic branches comprise 1250 rural, 442 semi-urban, 394 urban and 399 metropolitan branches. The bank has 80 specialised branches catering to specific segment of its customers. The bank has 41 lead district responsibility spread over five states in India. The bankhas sponsored 16 RRBs.