CHENNAI: Sunil Mehta, Chief Executive Officer of Punjab National Bank, said the bank has managed to regain the confidence of their customers after the Nirav Modi fiasco, while addressing the media after the launch of the 7,00th branch at the Trade Finance Centre, here on Monday.
The new branch will handle only foreign exchange operations. Mehta also inaugurated a centralised loan processing centre at the PNB Towers to strengthen internal systems and processes. “The bank has suffered problems in the last financial year but the team decided to maintain legacy and bounce back,” Mehta said, claiming that the operating profits of the bank increased by over 13 per cent.
It is learnt that the bank has also doubled down on the recovery of bad loans with Rs 8,445 crore being recovered in the first quarter of this financial year. “We have set a target of recovering and upgrading Rs 22,000 crore and are confident of achieving our target,” Mehta said, explaining around Rs 13,000 crore had been recovered at the end of the second quarter. Mehta also thanked the Centre for extending support by infusing Rs 8,247 crore and allowing it to get back on its feet.
Senior bank officials said that the home loan market had been favourable with more people availing loans for investing in properties. “The country has a high percentage of young population fuelling the home loan market,” Mehta told reporters. Further, the bank has also been implementing ‘Mission Parivartan’ - a brainchild of the CEO to improve bank operations and make the bank future ready by establishing better customer relations and simplifying processes.
Integrating with SWIFT
Answering questions about preventing fraudulent activities in availing corporate loans, Chief Executive Officer Sunil Mehta said that Punjab National Bank had integrated its core banking services with the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications