LUCKNOW: Depositors can expect better returns on their savings as banks may increase fixed deposit rates to mobilise more funds to meet credit growth, Punjab National Bank chairman and managing director K R Kamath has said. "You should expect a better rate (on fixed deposits)," Kamath told reporters yesterday on the sidelines of fifth National Conference organised by the Jaipuria Institutive of Management (JIM) on changing role of the banking sector. With the credit picking up, the banks would have to mobilise funds to meet growing demand of funds by the industry, he said, adding the deposits were not growing in tune of credits and the money was probably going in other instruments. RBI in its first mid-quarterly review in September observed "if bank credit is not to become a constraint to growth, the real rates need to move in the direction of encouraging bank deposits." Currently, savers are earning negative return as inflation is higher than deposit rate. Negative real interest rates refer to the difference between the deposit rates and inflation. It indicates that the bank deposits have not been adequately protected against declining value of money on account of inflation. On bank's plan to foray into global market, Kamath said that PNB was having a number of off-shore branches and was planning more in the current fiscal. "We have four subsidiaries in London, which the bank intends to increase to seven. Then we are trying to set up a subsidiary in Canada, upgrade one in Norway, buying a bank in Kazakhstan and a representative licence in Australia," he said. He said that the PNB's Institute of Information Technology was all set to start a full fledged Post Graduate Diploma in Banking Technology. "Right now the institute, which has received AICTE affiliation is offering a certified programme in advance diploma in banking technology," the CMD said. Kamath said that in the current fiscal bank's total business has crossed 4.82 lakh crore mark and deposit rose to 2.73 lakh crore as on September 30. "The bank's total business has registered a growth of 22.3 percent," he said. For the second quarter ended September, PNB reported 15.9 percent rise in net profit at Rs 1,075 crore against Rs 927 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal. The bank's total income rose by 18.1 per cent to Rs 7,174 crore during July-September, 2010.