The Hindu : Karnataka News : `Retailing will help apex bank see turnaround'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 19, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

`Retailing will help apex bank see turnaround'

Staff Correspondent

MANGALORE: The new chairman of the State apex bank, M.N. Rajendra Kumar, has said that he will try to achieve a complete turnaround of the apex bank in the next five years. He will also introduce retail banking.

Interacting with presspersons here on Sunday, Mr. Rajendra Kumar said it was true that the apex bank was not doing as good as it should have been. It was only earning a profit of Rs. 5 crores per annum when its installed capacity was to earn up to Rs. 20 crores.

This was mainly because of the fact that the apex bank was yet to take up several new generation banking solutions and services. This is why the apex bank should take up retail banking in a big way, he said.

Mr. Rajendra Kumar said the Dharwad DCC bank was not doing well and he would like to re-structure the bank in phases to enable it to achieve a turnaround. Stating that he will introduce innovative methods to do this, he said it was not his intention to find fault with the banks with lower turnover. But he was sure that there were some hitches which can be set right with managerial skills. The Kolar DCC bank also required attention, he added.

Asked if he was in favour of more DCC banks in the State, Mr. Rajendra Kumar said there were places such as Bagalkot and Davangere which needed DCC banks. However, Chamarajanagar, Bangalore Rural and Koppal do not need new banks as the mother banks such as Bijapur, Mysore and Bangalore Urban had jurisdiction over them. Likewise Udupi is being covered by the South Canara Central Cooperative Bank, Mangalore.

He said even the Jagadish Kapoor Committee report and the Reserve Bank of India directions on new DCC banks did not deem it necessary that the districts created in 1998 in the State should have DCC banks of their own as a great deal of balancing had to be done between lending and deposits between the two districts.

About improving efficiency in 31 apex bank branches in Bangalore, Mr. Rajendra Kumar said all the branches will be computerised and will get on-line facilities. The apex bank was also examining the possibilities of expanding the branch network.

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