Chennai: Punjab National Bank was scouting for acquisition of a bank in Kazakhstan as part of its plans to expand its presence, a top bank executive said on Saturday.

“There are lot of opportunities (in Kazakhstan). A high level delegation has visited the place and it is very much on our radar (for acquisitions)” Punjab National Bank executive director Nagesh Pydah told reporters.

Presently, Punjab National Bank has a representative office at Almaty in Kazakhstan.

The bilateral trade between India and Kazakhstan stood at $5.5 billion, he said.

To a query,Pydah said it would have a controlling stake in any bank which it was planning to acquire. “We will acquire 51% stake in a bank (when we acquire),” he said.

In addition to this, the bank would open a 100% subsidiary in Vancouver and would convert its representative office at Dubai to a branch.

Punjab National Bank, which entered the credit card businesses in February this year, has managed to issue 70,000 cards.However,PNB was doing businesses of Rs4,000 crore from 40 million customers and many areas in credit card business were “untapped”. For this purpose,Punjab National Bank has shortlisted a vendor to offer end-to-end solutions and by February next “it will be operational”, he said.

Pydoh was in Chennai to announce the bank’s tie-up with Ernst and Young Foundation to offer scholarship loans for about 5,000 economically weak students.

Under this scheme,loans will be extended by Punjab National Bank at various centres while Ernst and Young would assist the recovery of loans. Around 350 students were given loans by the bank, he said.

The bank’s total provisional business figures as of 30 September, stood at Rs3.95 crore with deposits of Rs2.30 crore and advances of Rs1.64 crore.