By Violet Pereira, Team Mangalorean

Mangalore: To announce the re-appointment of P Jayarama Bhat, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of The Karnataka Bank, for the second term of 3 years, the Karnataka Bank held a press meet at Hotel Deepa Comforts, here on July 20.

General Manager P Jayaram Hande, briefed on the achievement of the bank in the year 2011 to 2012.  He also briefed on the growth of the bank and said that over 88 years of its fruitful existence the bank has stood the test of time by its steady growth and vast, varied and versatile services marked by personal tinge and touch. 

Bank has secured "A1+" rating for its certificate of deposit programme from ICRA thus indicating highest quality rating to short term instrument.  The bank has been conferred with "Special award for managing IT risks", instituted by institute for development and research in Banking technology (IDRBT) established by Reserve Bank of India.

P Jayarama Bhat speaking on the occasion said that the bank achieved two milestones in financial year 2011 -12, i.e the business turnover of the bank crossed Rs 50,000 crore mark and the number of branches crossed 500 mark and this speak volumes fr its strong credentials. The total business of the bank stood at Rs 52,329 crore and net profit of the bank went up to Rs 246 crore as on 31 Mach 2012.

The capital funds of the bank stood at Rs 3,049 crore and the capital adequacy ratio stood at 12.84% as on March 2012, as against RBI stipulation of minimum 9%.The earning per share (basic) and the book value of the share stood at Rs 13.07 and Rs 136.99 respectively on March 31, 2012. The bank which has been consistently paying dividend over the years, proposed to pay dividend of 35% for the financial year 2011 -12. The bank has a highly dedicated team of over 6,000 employees ably patronized by over 1,12,000 shareholders and over 6.1 million clientele base.

As on date the bank has 891 service outlets, i.e, 506 branches, 3 extension counters and 382 ATM's spread across 20 states and 2 Union Territories. The Bank has plans to take the service outlets to 1,000 by end of March 2013 (550 branches and 450 ATM's).

The bank is committed to upgrade its technology with a view of rendering customer satisfying service with speed and accuracy, which is the cornerstone of success in this era of stiff competition. The bank has introduced, Multi branch banking, debit cards, 'e-commerce' - online payment through debit card, gift cards, travel cards and POS facilities.

The deposit portfolio of the bank includes customer friendly and popular schemes like fixed deposits, abhyudaya cash certificate with interest upon interest, cumulative deposit with fixed monthly contribution, soulabhya deposit with dual options and gains of high returns and need based withdrawal facility in units. In order to be customer centric the bank has varied savings bank schemes to cater to the needs of different segments such as KBL -Kishore and KBL-Tarun for students. KBL -salary privilege for salaried persons and KBL-Vanitha for women with all risk insurance cover for jewellery Rs 50,000/-. Insurance linked savings bank account is also available with free insurance coverage and hospitalization expenses reimbursement in the event of an accident.

The bank aims to surpass business turnover of Rs 1,00,000 crore, i.e, deposits of Rs 63,000 crore and advances of Rs 47,000 crore by March 2015, by having a clientele base of over 10 million through 1,500 service outlets.

General Managers Dr Meera Aranha, M S Mahabaleshwar, Upendra Prabhu and MVCS Karanth were also present.