2 months ago
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Karnataka Bank Ltd. (KBL) which turned 100 on February 18, said it had a mandate to cross ₹1,00,000 crore in gross advances and ₹2,00,000 crore in business turnover by March 2026, a top official said.
“It is not that Karnataka Bank just survived for a century, instead, we played a dominant role in the banking industry, touching the lives and businesses of millions of the needy and underprivileged,’‘ MD and CEO Srikrishnan H. told The Hindu.
He said gross advances stood at ₹70,000 crore and business turnover at ₹1,65,000 crore at present and the target was to cross ₹1,00,000 crore and ₹2,00,000 crore in the next two years, respectively.
According to Mr. Srikrishnan, for the first 100 years, the bank did not have any staff dedicated to sales. This function was mostly carried out by bank officials through branches or whenever they found some spare time, they met a prospective retail or corporate customer.
“We were not an outward-looking organisation so far. Whatever sales and customer acquisitions happened, mostly happened through branches by banking staff. But, we are now transforming in a big way. We are all set to acquire customers pan India and lay a solid base for our next century of growth,’‘ he said. Yet, in all 99 years, the bank posted profit and 96 of the 99 years it had declared dividends, he added.
In the last two quarters, KBL had recruited 550 people for sales alone, and until then, it had no employees exclusively for marketing. It also identified 250 of its banking operation staff and appointed them as part of the sales team.
“We built a huge sales team of 800 people. We now have an army and hundreds of feet on the street. This will accelerate our customer and business acquisition. This will also take us ahead of our competition,’‘ Mr. Srikrishnan stated.
He said it was important for the bank to change, get into a fast pace of growth and for that infusing a new culture was also required.
“Our old culture and commitment remains our strength. However, we should also have a new culture. So, at the leadership level, we have our KBL veterans and externally-hired leaders. Together, they will make a great team to lead the bank to its next level of growth,’‘ he added.
Mr. Srikrishnan further said, the bank was already growing ahead of the industry average. For instance, its advances had been growing at 18% against the industry average of 14% (RBI data).
“Our non-Karnataka portion is growing rapidly. We have launched a huge countrywide brand building and customer acquisition campaign,’‘ he added.
The bank will invest over ₹700 crore in capital expenditure, including in marketing, sales and brand promotion in the country.
