Mangalore : Shri S R Bansal, Chairman & Managing Director of the Bank addressing the Shareholders on the occasion of 17th Annual General Meeting of Corporation Bank held at Corporate Office of the Bank at Mangalore. Also seen in the photograph are Shri Amar Lal Daultani and Shri B K Srivastav, Executive Directors, Directors on Board and General Managers of the Bank.
In the 17th Annual General Meeting of Corporation Bank held at Mangalore on 26th June 2014 a final dividend of Rs. 2.25 per equity share of Rs. 10/- each for the year financial 2013-14 was declared. This is in addition to the Interim Dividend of Rs. 4.50 per share already paid by the Bank on 31.01.2014.
Shri S R Bansal, Chairman & Managing Director of the Bank, in his address to the Shareholders, dwelt upon the performance of the Bank and shared his thoughts on the economic scenario. Shri Bansal stated that the year just gone by was the most challenging year for the Bank but it has done fairly well in achieving healthy growth in business, revenues and customer base. He has been emphasizing on the need to focus on five important aspects for the overall business growth of the Bank i.e., Monitoring of each account and recovery of NPAs, Mobilising CASA deposits to increase CASA share of the Bank, Quality credit growth with focus on Agriculture, Retail and MSME, Expansion of branches and ATMs and other alternative delivery channels and Customer acquisition with focus on nextgen customers, he said.
Shri S R Bansal announced that the Total Business of the Bank crossed Rs. 3.30 lakh crore mark to reach Rs. 3,30,479 crore, registering an absolute growth of Rs. 45,757 crore at a growth rate of 16.07%. The Total Deposits grew by 16.5% to reach Rs. 1,93,393 crore and Total Advances increased by 15.47% to reach Rs.1,37,086 crore as on 31st March 2014. Major thrust was laid by the Bank on lending to Agriculture, SMEs and Retail segment and pursued vigorous strategies to make significant in-roads in this Priority area. While, Agriculture advances increased by 38.86% to reach Rs. 13,144 crore, Credit to SME segment improved by 27.16% to reach Rs. 24,818 crore; Credit to Retail segment grew by 15.4% to reach Rs. 29,026 crore. The Bank achieved the regulatory targets in financing to Priority Sector, Agriculture, Weaker sections and to women beneficiaries. The Priority Sector Advance of the Bank at Rs. 48,560 crore as on 31.03.2014, stood at 40.91% of the Adjusted Net Bank Credit (ANBC) as against the RBI Norm of 40%.
Shri Bansal stated that Corp Bank firmly believes that expansion of branches, ATM network and acquisition of new clients with focus on next-gen customers and nurturing the relationship with the existing clients can only augment steady and sustainable business growth. During the last fiscal 314 branches, 839 ATMs and 787 branchless banking units were operationalized and 23.92 lakh new customers were added. Under the inclusive growth, the Bank seeks to reach the unreached in the remote rural areas and the urban poor to provide the means for people to create or enhance their capabilities to improve their livelihood. The Bank has taken up additional 787 villages under financial inclusion to take the total number of villages covered to 4,332 in the year 2013-14.
As a responsible corporate citizen, the Bank initiated several welfare measures aiming at the underprivileged section of the society in fulfillment of its commitment to social priorities. As a humanitarian gesture, the Bank, donated Rupees One Crore to the State of Uttarakhand to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, towards relief and rehabilitation of the victims of the flash floods and cloudbursts that took place in the state. During the year, the Bank formed Women Welfare Association under the name “CorpKiran” to extend CSR activities. The Bank granted Rs. 10.64 lakh to various institutions during the year through “CorpKiran”, providing food, clothing, books etc., to poor school children and inmates of orphanages, old age homes, destitute homes, helping physically and mentally challenged people, extending medical help to poor people in distress, supporting green initiative, conducting awareness programmes and other community development activities benefitting poor people.
On new initiatives which were taken up by the Bank, Shri Bansal said that the Bank opened exclusive SME loan centres across the country with a view to catering to the SME segment. The net banking facility has been enabled for both retail and corporate customers using a robust scalable MVC module with many add on features. This facility is being used by more than eight lakh users and services are also available through Android phones, IOS phones, tablets and ipads. Several hi-tech products like e-Passbook, Global Credit Card – a prepaid Forex Travel were also launched, he added.
Shri S R Bansal enlightened that the financial year 2014-15 is going to be another testing year with challenges in abundance for bankers. The Business Policy 2014-15 of the Bank has emphasized thrust on efficient pricing of deposits and loans, higher CASA mobilization, aggressive penetration into SME landscape, developing Priority Sector and Agriculture advances and gradual scaling down of dependence on bulk business for improving margins. Ushering E-business and Technology and Business Process Re-engineering is put on top-priority to keep the Bank well ahead in the competition.
Sri Amar Lal Daultani and Shri B K Srivastav, Executive Directors, Directors on Board of the Bank and General Managers were present on the occasion.
