Allahabad Bank CMD .N. Singh (right) and Principal PNB AMC managing director Sanjay Sachdeva in Calcutta on Tuesday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, Oct. 18: Allahabad Bank expects to garner Rs 225 crore as fee-based income by distributing insurance and mutual fund products.

The bank today entered into an agreement with Principal PNB Asset Management Company for distribution of mutual fund products through its branches across the country. Initially, 600 branches will sell the mutual fund products of the AMC.

Allahabad Bank chairman and managing director .N. Singh said the bank has formed a pact as it was aiming to increase its fee-based income substantially.

The fee-based income of the bank in the last financial year was Rs 100 crore. With the trading profit going down this year, the tie-up will help the bank to meet the gap.

Sanjay Sachdeva, CEO and managing director of Principal PNB AMC, said the tie-up will help the company tap retail investors of the country. “The tie-up will offer customers of Allahabad Bank mutual fund products catering to various genre and financial requirements,” he said.

Principal PNB, a joint venture between Punjab National Bank, the Principal Financial Group of USA, and Vijaya bank, has assets under management worth Rs 7,700 crore. The AMC aims to cross the Rs 10,000-crore-mark by March 2006.

“We expect to add another Rs 2,000 crore under equity in the current fiscal. We are aiming a 50 per cent growth in the second half of this fiscal,” added Sachdeva.