Laid strong base for growth, aiming at 13.5% CAGR by 2025: Indian Bank MD

Public sector lender Indian Bank on Thursday announced a new vision and mission and set a target of achieving compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.5 per cent by financial year 2024-25 (FY25) as it celebrated the first anniversary of the amalgamation of Allahabad Bank.

“By FY25 the bank expects to grow its business at a CAGR of 13.5 per cent. In the current financial year, we are targeting a growth of 10-12 per cent,” said Padmaja Chunduru, managing director and chief executive officer of Indian Bank, after launching the vision and mission, HR mission, chatbot, and IB smart office initiatives.

In 2019, the government announced the merger of 10 of public sector banks (PSBs) into four, including the amalgamation of Allahabad Bank with Indian Bank.

After the merger, Indian Bank became the seventh largest PSB and it is considered a success story thanks to its seamless merger, growing its business from about Rs 8 trillion to Rs 9.1 trillion in the nine months to December 2020.

Chunduru said despite challenges, the bank has emerged as one of the best on various parameters, including business, profit, customer acquisition. She noted that Indian Bank got the highest capital adequacy with 14.06 per cent and has the best ratings, which would help it raise money at a low rate. “We have become atmanirbhar when it comes to capital.”

“All our vision and mission revolve around customers and employees,” said Chunduru, adding that the bank has laid a strong foundation for a sustainable future. The top three priorities are growth, earnings, and asset quality.

The bank is looking to increase its net interest margin (NIM) to 3.21 per cent as against 3.13 per cent at present and reduce net NPA to 1.31 per cent from 2.35 per cent.

V V Shenoy, executive director of the bank, said: “Employees are our most important and valuable assets in providing insights into customer experience and act as brand ambassadors. Indian Bank commits to foster excellence through a journey of growth, individual development and robust employee experience and Indian Bank’s HR Mission aims for this".

K Ramachandran, executive director, while launching the chatbot named “ADYA” (Automated Dost for your Assistance) said it is an Artificial Intelligence based tool that helps customers access information instantly from the website.

Imran Amin Siddiqui, another executive director, launched the IB smart office platform for the bank’s employees for processing office notes and letters digitally across all administrative offices and branches.

He added that this is a green initiative and will help the bank save on printing and stationery, improve turnaround time (TAT), increase productivity, and generate reports to ensure better control and compliance.