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After Central Bureau of Investigation’s grilling few business honchos, bankers have shifted focus to greener pastures like retail, housing and SME (small and medium) segment. Dena Bank is no exception to it, speaking to Shashikant Trivedi, the bank’s chairman and managing director Ashwani Kumar said, growth is expected in the smaller segments. Excerpts:
After coalgate and 2G spectrum, big-ticket investment projects have come to standstill. In such a scenario how do you see banking industry?
It is true that investors’ confidence has been shaken but there are signs of recovery as Reserve Bank of India has tried to arrest inflation and volatility in forex market. Also the government has taken certain policy decision to limit the widening CAD (current account deficit). Kharif crop arrival will also boost sentiments in the market very soon. But as a banker, we are focusing more on SMEs (small and medium enterprises), agriculture loan and retail segment.
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It is like this, bankers have two problems, treasure yield has gone up and provisioning on account of non-performing assets. As regards treasury yields bankers have little room but on NPA restructuring we are offering CDR facility only to genuine businessmen. For willful defaulters we have legal routes to tackle.
How do you see growth for your bank in such a scenario?
We are focusing on retail, farm and SME segment and expansion of our network. We expect retail segment to touch 25% from existing 17% though SME segment may stay stagnant at 35% YoY (year-over-year) growth. We are launching mega credit camps for farm loan, housing loans and housing project loans. Also we are observing SME day at our branches to offer more loans to SMEs. We are also expanding our network by opening branches in tier-II towns like Bhopal, Indore and Raipur. We have plans to open 175 branches this year. A representation office will soon be set up in London. Also we are aggressive in financial inclusion programmes. There are encouraging signs.
Do you expect RBI to intervene further in banking sector?
No they have pared repo rates that has curtailed volatility in forex market; our finance minister is directly monitoring the sector. A favourable environment has already been created in adverse conditions; I hope present scenario augurs well about banking sector.
