In order to enhance business which was affected due to Covid-19, Maharashtra based Thane Bharat Sahakari Bank (Scheduled Bank) has decided to overcome the challenge by boosting business in near future. Now, the bank is planning to disburse group and gold loans to the borrowers.
Talking with Indian Cooperative correspondent at its headquarters in Thane, the bank CEO Shekhar Desai said, “We are making a strategy to grow the business which was affected due to Covid-19. Firstly, we are focusing on group loans. In this regard, we are seeing the balance sheet of companies located in Maharashtra state for disbursing loans to their employees.”
Talking further he said “We provide secured as well as unsecured loans to them and the rate of interest is between 10.5 percent to 12 percent. At present JSW Bombay employees and other company staff are availing the benefits. The loan repayment time period is between 5-10 years. We are also seeing a huge business in gold loans”, he informed.
Besides he said, “The deposits and loans and advances of the bank as on 31st March 2020 stood at Rs 1376 crore and Rs 789 crore respectively. The business mix of the bank in 2019-2020 was Rs 2,165 crore and earned a net profit of Rs 3.52 crore.
The Net NPA of the bank is 3.63 percent and Gross NPA is 5.79 percent. “Our team is working hard to slow down the NPA levels and recovering big loans from the borrowers”, Desai underlined.
Besides his Bank’s business, Desai also talked about several issues concerning the UCB sector. He felt RBI should extend the housing loan limit from Rs 70 Lakh to Rs 2 crore at least in some cities including Mumbai where the property rate starts at Rs 1cr.
The bank CEO suggested that there are over 892 banks which are unit banks having single branches and their business is less than 100 crores. For strengthening such banks, I suggest that RBI or federation may shortlist districts where UCBs’ branches do not exist and allow single unit cooperative banks to open their branches.
Coming to the newly amended Banking Regulation Act he said, RBI should re-consider the formation of Board of Management in addition to board of directors. With the banking regulation Act amended now, there is no need for constituting BoM. Though, RBI has recently extended the deadline for constituting BoM the apex bank should reconsider it”, he said.
Vowing to employ more and more of the latest technology in banking, Desai said “we are also looking forward to using new technology for our customers. At present our mobile banking application is operational and getting good response from the members as well as other customers”.
“In the competitive environment our main goal is to adopt advanced technology in our activity,” Desai who had earlier worked with several UCBs including Saraswat Bank, Janakalyan Sahakari Bank, etc said.
Thane Bharat Sahakari Bank was established in 1979 in Thane district. Since its inception, the Bank has grown by leaps & bounds with 30 branches, spread over Mumbai, Thane, Raigad and Pune districts.