Asset quality improvement a top priority: K P Kharat

Interview with New MD & CEO, IDBI Bank

Soon after taking charge as managing director and chief executive at IDBI Bank, K P Kharat spoke to Abhijit Lele on priorities. Edited excerpts:

What will be your key priorities?

Faced with a slowdown, banks have seen pressure on their books. In this backdrop, improving asset quality will be a top priority.

IDBI is now a commercial bank, while its origins are as a development finance institution (DFI). Does that pose a challenge?

Project finance is a definite strength area inherited from DFI. I will reinforce and make it stronger. Being a commercial bank. It will also have to do realignment of business portfolios after systematic analysis.

Your are a relatively young bank among state-run lenders. Is leading the bank in a competitive market place a tough task?

The average age of bank employees is quite low. We have plenty of young people who are tech-savvy. We will connect with them to tap the potential for development and business growth.

IDBI Bank has relatively limited branch network compared to its peers. Its share of low-cost deposits is also low. How do you plan to address these challenges?

Bank will have to expand horizontally to increase coverage and garner resources, especially into savings accounts, to improve the share of low-cost deposits.