Karur Vysya Bank, which holds a legacy of 104 years, aims to become more trader friendly by focusing more on MSME, commercial and retail segment and at the same time it will be very cautious with its corporate exposure.
MD and CEO B Ramesh Babu, who joined the bank recently, talks to The New Indian Express about his roadmap for better growth.
Impact of corona on your operations and how is the situation now?
Footfalls at the branches still remain low, however the numbers of banking transactions have moved back to pre-covid levels. Customers are using digital channels including our mobile app KVB DLite. The major challenge we faced was in regard to advances. But economic activities are slowly resuming and things will definitely improve.
What about your non-performing assests (NPA)?
NPAs were a major concern during lockdown. But we have checked the accounts and we are in constant touch with the customers, pursuing them to repay back and providing hand-holding support to them as cash flows have dried up.
Wherever needed we are providing support for restructuring of loans. So far, we have received loan restructuring requests from hardly 5 to 6 corporate accounts.
Our retail exposure is secured under collateral property and on the commercial front also there may not be any major hit. Our position under NPA is under control.
Strategy to tide over these difficult times?
The major stress came from the corporate accounts, so on a priority basis we have taken a call to limit exposure to Rs 125 crore per corporate account. Earlier, we were taking exposure up to Rs 200-300 crore but we have consciously decided to bring down our higher exposures to Rs125 crore. Besides, our focus will be to increase CASA.
We will focus more on the commercial and retail segment, especially on MSMEs and even on the agriculture gold loan segment. Currently, the commercial segment comprises 33 per cent of our portfolio, we have plans to increase it to 40 per cent. In the commercial advance segment, the competition is relatively and pricing power is better, so we can really perform well.
Your plans to ensure the bank’s growth?
My first priority will be to increase the credit growth and I have already started working on it by identifying the major roadblocks. Along with it, improving the asset quality is also an important task. The NPAs which have come along we have to see how fast we can salvage them.
For any bank, depositors are its lifeline, so CASA has to go up and in this FY all our 800 branches will focus on opening mid-segment current and savings bank accounts. I also have plans to increase footprints of the bank in rural, semi-urban and urban areas through business correspondents model.