Calcutta, May 15: The State Bank of India (SBI) is looking to open more branches and ATMs across the country to improve its bottomline and increase the return on assets.

“Depending upon the needs and requirements of the people, we have planned to open up more than 1,000 branches across the country. Of these, more than 50 per cent are targeted at rural areas as a part of our financial inclusion target specified by the Reserve Bank of India,” said A. Krishna Kumar, managing director and group executive (national banking) of the SBI. He was in the city to inaugurate the 1,000th branch in the Bengal circle at Rajarhat today.

“We already have more than 25,000 ATMs across the country and we plan to have another 10,000 within the next fiscal,” he said.

The SBI’s net profit for the first quarter of financial year 2010-11 was Rs 2,914.20 crore and return on assets (ROA), 1.07. Net profit at the end of third quarter was Rs 2,828.06 crore and ROA, 0.94.

“The low return on assets reflects that we are not using our funds efficiently. The way forward is to expand our operations. New branches, ATMs and Internet banking will help to increase our operating efficiency by increasing the volume of transactions.” Krishna Kumar said.

With the commissioning of the Rajarhat branch, Bengal becomes the eighth circle where the SBI has more than 1,000 branches.