Maharashtra’s leading bank- Bassein Catholic Cooperative Bank, under the leadership of Chairman Benauld Patrick Dias, remains confident despite a slight decline in the business mix for the fiscal year 2023-24. The focus is on quality growth rather than rapid expansion.
The financial year 2023-24 for Bassein Catholic Cooperative Bank was satisfactory on several parameters. However, the bank failed to register growth in a few areas but made a strategy to take the bank to new heights.
The bank’s deposits as well as advances slightly declined but performed spectacularly in decreasing the NPA levels as well as earning handsome profit for the 2023-24 FY.
Talking to the Indian Cooperative correspondent, Dias said, “When I took the charge as the new Chairman of the Bank in July, last year, at that time the NPA amount was around Rs 950 crore but due to efforts of the board members and others we could recover about Rs 500 crore in the 2023-24 FY. We see this like a victory during the year”, he said.
“We are more focused on decreasing the NPA levels. We have taken hard recovery initiatives by invoking the SARFAESI Act, 2002, against the defaulting borrowers. We are strictly following the RBI rules and regulations” stated Benauld Patrick Dias.
Reacting to the decline in deposits and advances of the bank during the 2023-24 fiscal year, the Chairman stated, “It is true that our deposits and advances slightly reduced, but I will tell you one thing: as far as deposits are concerned, many cooperative banks are facing the same problem”, he noted.
“The reason we understand is that the second generation are high risk takers and are investing their money in share capital or doing SIP in mutual funds but our retail deposits are not reduced. We are making a plan for launching the scheme for attracting depositors”, he underlined.
Dias said, in advance, we are moving ahead towards professional banking. We closely monitor each and every loan file before sanctioning it. We are focusing on compliance, risk management, liquidity management and others, he said.
The deposits of the bank decreased from Rs 8,159 crore (2022-23) to Rs 8,134 crore as of 31st March 2024 whereas advances reduced from Rs 4,553 crore to Rs 4,141 crore in the 2023-24 FY.
During the year, the bank earned a net profit of Rs 117.88 crore. Earlier it was Rs 76.58 crore as of 31st March 2023. The bank’s Annual General Meeting is scheduled for 18th August 2024.
The bank has a network of 63 branches in different parts of Maharashtra.