Chennai: Private sector lender Tamilnad Mercantile Bank (TMB) is looking to invest heavily in cybersecurity, increasing its allocation to 20% of its total information technology (IT) spending next year. The Tuticorin-headquartered bank has earmarked a capex of Rs 280 crore for the current fiscal (FY27), of which 10% has been allocated to cybersecurity.“By next year, we should see that moving up because that’s one area where we are going to invest heavily. We are aware of the risks involved as we become more and more digital. We have to be on our guard, and you will see substantial investments happening there. Our objective is to gradually increase the cybersecurity budget to 20% of our overall IT budget,” MD and CEO Salee S. Nair said on Monday.The bank is also looking to raise $50 million through Foreign Currency Non-Resident (Bank) [FCNR(B)] deposits and Overseas Foreign Currency Borrowings (OFCBs) under the RBI’s swap initiative. Noting that the bank has mobilised $10 million since the announcement of the swap initiative, Nair said it is taking steps to leverage such opportunities through liaison officers in Malaysia, Singapore and West Asia, particularly Dubai.“Currently, we do not have any presence abroad. We will use liaison officers to tap this potential, which we realised after such schemes were announced. However, that is still some distance away,” he added.Meanwhile, TMB posted a 35% increase in net profit to Rs 411 crore for this June quarter, when compared with Rs 305 crore in the year-ago quarter. Nair said this was the highest quarterly net profit in the bank’s history.“Naturally, as the bank grows, net profit keeps increasing. But for the first time, we have crossed a net profit of Rs 400 crore in a quarter,” he said.Net Interest Income (NII) rose 32% to Rs 765 crore from Rs 579 crore, while Net Interest Margin (NIM) improved by 45 basis points to 4.29% from 3.84%. Total deposits grew 20% to Rs 64,409 crore in Q1FY27 from Rs 53,803 crore in Q1FY26.
