"100% of our J&K Branches Profit-Making; Will consolidate existing Branches Before expanding further: Planning to raise capital in Fourth Quarter of current fiscal; EMI Date realignment Reduced SMA-0 Accounts by more than 50%; ATM Outages Caused by Vendor Bankruptcy now sorted out; J&K Bank moving from service approach to Sales-and-Service approach”
Srinagar, Aug 26 (KNS): Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Jammu & Kashmir Bank, Amitava Chatterjee on Tuesday said that the bank has a target to achieve an equal share of business from within Union Territory and from the rest of India.
“Located in Jammu and Kashmir, 100 percent of our branches here are profit-making. But we also have nearly 180 branches outside the UT. Going forward, our aim is to see business equally shared, half from J&K and half from the rest of the country in three to five years,” MD & CEO said while addressing shareholders at the Annual General Meeting held at SKICC Srinagar.
He said that J&K Bank is already present in 20 states and has branches in all major Indian cities. "The time for us now is to consolidate our efforts and business performance. We will expand in unbanked areas within J&K and selectively in the rest of the country where opportunities are viable. There is no massive expansion plan at this stage since we are already present nationwide. The priority is to make existing branches productive,” he said.
The MD also said that the Bank’s Capital to Risk-weighted Assets Ratio (CRAR) stands at 16.29 percent. “The ratio is healthy and comfortable, but our growth plans will require further capital. We do have plans to raise capital during this financial year, most likely in the fourth quarter. The time and the amount will be announced in due course,” he said.
Explaining the migration from Large Credit Units (LCUs) to Central Processing Cells (CPCs) for corporate lending, the MD said that LCUs were introduced to standardize large and mid-sized corporate loans and reduce audit objections but this led to a disconnect because customers who banked with local branches were required to approach only 5–6 LCU centers. "By shifting to CPCs, the benefits of LCUs continue, but customers now interact only with their branch of choice. CPCs will handle processing and monitoring in the background. This ensures compliance while keeping customer service intact.”
The MD said the Bank has revised EMI schedules to match customer salary dates.Click Here To Follow Our WhatsApp Channel“Earlier, customers were being classified as defaulters not because of payment failure but due to mismatch between EMI dates and salary credit dates. The change has reduced SMA-0 accounts by more than 50 percent. This has ensured that customers’ credit scores are not affected and the Bank is able to focus on genuine stress accounts,” he said.
On ATM outages, the MD said that the issue arose due to a vendor that went bankrupt, affecting several banks. “That problem has now been sorted out. Gradually, outages will reduce to zero. In parallel, we are upgrading technology and creating redundancy in applications as well as human resources so that downtime is substantially reduced,” he said.
On rising operating expenses, the MD said that operating expenses can never be aligned with what has happened in the past or what is going to happen in the future. "There are always one-time issues. What matters is how well a bank contains them and improves efficiency going forward. The CFO will provide the detailed breakup of the increase separately.”
Responding to queries on customer relationship management, the MD said that staff behaviour and service quality remain central to customer satisfaction. “Customer-friendly behaviour of staff and provision of quality services are of paramount importance. We have shifted from a service-only approach to a sales-and-service approach. This initiative has been introduced across branches. Every day, senior functionaries are in touch with branch staff. We have been used to a certain style of service for 87 years, but expectations have changed. The transition takes time, but I am sure customers will notice the difference in their next branch visits,” he said.
The MD added that the aim was to avoid complacency and bring competition into the Bank’s service culture. “The initiatives we have started from EMI reforms to CPCs to the service reorientation are all part of improving customer service while strengthening overall business performance,” he added.(KNS)