J&K Bank, the only listed company of J&K, is all set to raise its capital to boost lending to the productive sectors of economy. This shall accelerate the economic growth of the regions of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh in particular.
This cushion of capital would also fuel growth and development of the bank by increasing its risk bearing capacity to become stronger.
This was stated by Chairman & Managing Director (CMD) of the bank, Rajesh Kumar Chhibber in an exclusive interview with Greater Kashmir Business Editor.
Elaborating its plan to raise capital, Chhibber said, “We shall be raising Equity Share Capital up to Rs 3500 Cr in one or more tranches by way of Rights Issue/Preferential Allotment/Private Placement/Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP)/ESPS or any other approved mode, besides raising of Capital up to Rs 1000 Cr by way of Non-Convertible, Redeemable, Unsecured, BASEL III Compliant, TIER-II bonds in the nature of debentures on a private placement basis.”
The decision has been taken to improve the bank’s capital adequacy to continue remaining compliant with Basel-III norms in the coming quarters, he said.
While expressing his expectations from the market, he said the bank being on the resurgence path towards better profits and growth, foresees a positive demand for its share during the capital raising exercise.
He is expecting a resumption in the appetite of foreign investors and domestic corporates for the Bank’s shares.
Responding to a question on customer services, Chhibber said, “The bank is working continuously to improve the quality of service through customer satisfaction surveys and customer advisory forum meets regularly conducted at operative levels as per regulatory guidelines. “The bank has adopted the Centralized Customer Complaint Tracking System which provides a secure and centralized platform for receiving complaints.”
He disclosed that the Bank has adopted the policy of holding regular training programmes for the staff in line with customer service orientation, rewarding the Best Business Units and the Best Employees for Best Customer Service.
In order to align its staff to the fast changing financial landscape, the bank is perhaps the only organization in the industry which has done innovation on internal communication front. Commenting on this, the CMD said, “We have innovated a unique internal communication model and established a full-fledged department by the name of Internal Communication and Knowledge Management (ICKM). The department is assigned with the job of keeping the staff updated about the day-to-day happenings in banking, finance and economy. Extensive financial knowledge and economic education also fall within the ambit of the department. ICKM is consistently using innovative technology tools and communication channels to aware staff at all levels about the products and services of the bank in a play-way method. One of the initiatives of the department is its publication of monthly magazine ‘Trust’ that has been devised to enhance the financial knowledge of our staff at all levels.
The department also runs an e-newsletter that has transformed into a kind of 24×7 web portal meant exclusively for staff with relevant news/information updated in real-time. Also, the department has begun using social media platform like Whatsapp, Facebook to keep staff abreast with the internal communication of the bank besides industry updates.