Srinagar, June 20: The Chairman and MD of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank, Rajesh Kumar Chhibber today reassured all stakeholders that the Bank’s business is not impacted in any manner by the recent developments and ongoing investigations undertaken by the State Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB).
He further said that the Bank is a unique institution, one of the oldest private sector banks of the country with a majority stake of the government of Jammu & Kashmir. The Bank enjoys a rich legacy in terms of the emotional equity of people of J&K, which will continue to anchor its journeys towards summit of success. The Bank has strong fundamentals ranging from unmatched retail liability franchise, capital base and sustained profitability, besides other consistently improving financial indicators.
The Chairman said, “Bank has since its inception withstood multiple challenges especially the difficult business environment of the last 30 years and seen consistently growing business and profitability numbers with a one off exception of Financial Year 2017. The Bank draws its strength from its committed, emotionally integrated workforce, the brand and emotional equity it enjoys in the State of J&K and the unflinching support from the J&K Government all of which remains intact.”
Further elaborating on the Business Strategy and future growth prospects the Chairman said that the Bank continues to pursue its envisaged Business goals adopting the well thought of Strategic vision and plans. The Bank has seen exponential growth in retail and small corporate business in the previous quarter and plans to continue the momentum during the rest of the quarters as well which would help it achieve the targeted 18- 20% growth in credit in the current fiscal along with improved bottom-line. The Bank has besides seen phenomenal success of multi-product business campaigns which have spurred sharp growth in housing, consumer and car loans. Bank remains aggressive in further promoting these products in the hugely untapped market of J&K to maximize the profitable growth numbers through these sectors.
The Chairman said that the ongoing investigations undertaken by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to look into the complaints of alleged irregularities in recruitments is an entirely separate track having absolutely no impact on the routine business functioning of the bank. The Chairman said that the endeavor is to continue enriching the experience of customers through continuously evolving products and services including through digital platforms. This is translating into continuous growth in number of new on boarded customers as well as the growing size of existing relationships.
The government and the board of the bank have time and again reiterated that the change of guard has been done to strengthen bank’s governance framework besides enhancing transparency and accountability in the functioning of the state’s premier institution. Besides the recent decisions of the Board regarding splitting of the post of Chairman and Managing Director, adoption of RTI and CVC guidelines are aimed at improving governance function in the Bank so that it emerges as a better and stronger institution. The state administration has reaffirmed complete support to the bank besides underlining its commitment to take the bank to higher levels of efficiency.
There is complete confidence that J&K Bank which has proved its mettle beyond doubt throughout its illustrious journey of more than eight decades especially during periods of massive turmoil, immense floods and market mayhems shall come out with flying colours and shall emerge unscathed and better from the current situation as well.
