Banking as you like

Prasoon Pant / Jul 12, 2004, 14:04 IST

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Managing director and chief executive officer, Lord Krishna Bank, R M Nayak speaks on banking technology and education.

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">When was the bank established and with what objectives? Where does it stand with respect to other private sector banks? The Lord Krishna Bank (LKB) was established in 1940 at Kodungallur in Thrissur district of Kerala with the noble objectives of promoting thrift among common people and finance agriculture, trade and commerce.Although the bank started at a very modest level, by the end of 1960s it expanded its activities by taking over three local commercial banks: Thiyya Bank, Josna Bank and Kerala Union Bank. From 1991 there has been an overall change in the outlook, ethos and business strategy of the bank. With a network of 106 branches spread across 11 states, which include Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat and the Union Territory of Chandigarh, Lord Krishna Bank is one of the few Indian private sector banks to have more than 100 branches across the country. It plans to increase the network by adding 25 more branches across the country in the current financial year. The bank is one of the fastest-growing Indian private banks. What kinds of facilities do you provide to your customers? Do you provide educational loans? LKB offers a wide range of financial products, both assets and liabilities. We have all types of deposit products: demand, term and hybrid of both, to suit the needs of all segments of local and NRI clients. We offer retail as well as corporate finance, long-term and short-term. The bank has identified retail and SME sectors as thrust areas. Our retail loan products are fine-tuned and they are very competitive and customer friendly. These include education loans, personal loans, mortgage loans, housing loans, car loans, loans against rent receivables, among others. The bank has distribution alliances with top mutual funds of the country like SBI Mutual Fund, LIC Mutual Fund, Prudential ICICI, HDFC Mutual Fund, Franklin Templeton, Standard Chartered Mutual Fund and DSP Merryll Lynch. LKB is actively participating in the self-employment and poverty alleviation programmes by liberally lending to the priority sector and other government-sponsored schemes. The bank has tailor-made schemes for various retail loans including education loans. Our education loan scheme is especially modelled to take care of the education needs at all levels. The scheme aims at providing financial support on competitive terms to the meritorious and needy to undertake higher, professional and technical education in India or abroad. How far have you taken technology in your day-to-day operations? The bank has scaled new heights in customer services and IT initiatives. About 90 per cent of the business of the bank is computerised. The bank has 39 ATMs in important centres in the country. What kind of people do you employ in your bank? What qualifications and traits do you look for in them? The average age of the workforce in LKB is 37 which is amongst the lowest in the banking industry. We have a dedicated team of professional bankers to drive the business. Apart from requisite education qualifications and experience in relevant fields, we try to see in each candidate before selection whether he or she: is a self-reliant, happy and positive person or not; has the right attitude and skill base to perform the job; works effectively in a team or individually, with little or no supervision; can multi-task or problem solve; is willing to learn from mistakes; has the motivation and aptitude to keep the job; possess good interpersonal skill and have the attitude of sharing; respect for authority and care for the customer and is honest and trustworthy. Do you have adequate representation of women in your organisation? What kind of positions do they hold in LKB? Women members comprise 34 per cent of our workforce. We have 122 women executives or officers and 220 award staff members, right from deputy general manager to subordinate staff. Do you feel in India we have enough training institutions to churn out bankers? Do we need more banking-sector oriented study and training programmes? Banks in India have their own in-house human resource development departments including training colleges or centres. Apart from academic areas, banks train the employees on behavioural aspects. The ''Indian Institute of Banking and Finance'' conducts certificate examinations on banking subjects for the bank employees, which promote upgradation of knowledge on banking-related areas. Banks nominate their staff to other external training institutions and management schools like NIBM, BTC, IIMs, to name a few for specialised programmes. We feel that there are a good number of avenues for training the bank staff in our country. What are your future plans? For the current financial year LKB has set an ambitious target to increase the business level by 60 per cent from Rs 3,450 crore to cross Rs 5,000 crore. To remain highly competitive in the changing banking scenario and to forge ahead in the growth path, the bank has initiated steps for business re-engineering in accordance with the recommendations of Price Waterhouse Coopers. We are rapidly expanding our branch network to reach out to more customers, each of these new branches are fully computerised and use state-of-the-art technology. Banking at LKB combines the good aspects of traditional banking with modernity to deliver ''Banking as you like it''.</div> </div>

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