Karnataka Bank targets over Rs 1.42 trn business turnover in FY22

Public sector Karnataka Bank has targeted 12 per cent business growth in the current fiscal year, expecting total business of over Rs 1.42 trillion.

Public sector Karnataka Bank has targeted 12 per cent business growth in the current fiscal year, expecting total business of over Rs 1.42 lakh crore.

The lender also said digital banking is the way forward and it is at the cusp of engineering a breakthrough in banking industry as ground has been already laid to be the 'Digital Bank of the Future'.

Even before the COVID-19 outbreak, the Indian banking industry had been undergoing a paradigm shift from traditional ways of banking with digital technology powering this change, its Managing Director and CEO Mahabaleshwara M S said.

He was speaking to all the staff members and branches across the country virtually on the first day of the current fiscal year (April 1), presenting a broad outline of business goals and strategies for FY22.

The CASA (current account savings account) share of the bank has reached a new high of 31 per cent and the digital transactions have also crossed 90 per cent, the bank said in a release.

"For the new financial year the bank has planned to grow its business at a moderate 12 per cent to take the total business turnover to Rs 1,42,500 crore.

"With a healthy business growth, 'cost lite' liability portfolio, strengthened fundamentals etc, the year 2021-22 should be an year of excellence for Karnataka Bank," Mahabaleshwara said on Thursday.

The advent of payments banks and fintech lenders has accelerated the change in the banking industry and Karnataka Bank took a proactive step in 2017 by initiating a holistic transformation journey 'Project KBL VIKAAS', said the lender.

The objective of this journey, founded on digital technology as enabler, is to strengthen the bank's fundamentals and build long term capabilities to continue to stay ahead of the curve, it added.

The bank has taken many digital initiatives, from establishing a state-of-the-art Digital Centre of Excellence (DCoE) in Bengaluru -- a digital innovation hub powering various digital products, to digital loans sanctioning for most of retail products as well as introducing tab banking and web banking for opening savings accounts.

"As the digital is the way forward, we have placed digital banking on fast forward mode to pursue the concept of 'KBL NxT'.

"With many more digital products lined up for this new financial year under this new set up, Karnataka Bank has a business advantage heading into the new FY 21-22 in a post COVID-19 scenario," Mahabaleshwara said.