-5412x3613.jpg)
More than 1,000 bankers have succumbed to the coronavirus across the country as banks remained open to provide uninterrupted service to customers. In this tough phase of fight against the pandemic, bank chiefs have struggled to keep their staff motivated and safe while securing growth in profits.
In an interview with Indianbankingnews.com’s Editor Manju AB, Bank of Maharashtra managing director and CEO AS Rajeev talks about the devastating impact Covid has had, the number of casualties it has left behind and the efforts he has made to stem the tide from his head office in Pune. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.
How severely has Bank of Maharashtra been impacted by Covid?
Out of a total staff strength of 13,126, about 15% to 18% of our employees are impacted.
Around 40 employees have succumbed to the disease. In the first wave of Covid-19, about 16 employees lost their lives while the rest of the casualties were in the second wave. Many of the employees who succumbed to it had co-morbidity issues.
This time the impact has been more in the rural areas. We have 700 to 750 branches in the rural belt.
The impact has come down for the past one week or so due to the localised lockdowns. The implementation of restricted banking hours has also helped in improving the situation. Right now we have 200 employees who are infected. Only a small number of this are in the hospital while the rest are quarantined at home.
The bank is giving a lump-sum amount of Rs 20 lakh. If the bereaved family has a dependent of employable age, job in the bank will be provided. If the employee had liabilities like a home loan, it will be transferred to the family member who is given a job.
We have vaccinated about 90% of our staff who are 45 years of age and above. This may have saved some of our employees.
For vaccination of those below 45 years of age, we have started tying up with various hospitals. We have completed vaccinating 25% of our staff in this age group.
On an average, it was not more than 10 branches at any given point in time. Though we faced some difficulties, we managed to declare our exit quarter and financial year results on 29 April.
It was because of proper planning, support from the IBA (Indian Banks’ Association) and the finance ministry. We also did not have too many interruptions.
We have 1,950 branches and customer service points are 150. About 90% of the advances and 90% of the total business of the bank have to be audited. If we audit 55% of our branches, we cover 90% of the requirements. Business of the smaller branches were pooled together along with the bigger branches.
The bank has a Covid war room at the head office and at the zonal office. This is headed by a general manager and is monitored by an executive director. One call to this centre from anywhere in the country is enough to alert our systems.
For testings, we have tied up with hospitals. Doctors from these hospitals also visit our war room and zonal office to monitor employees and counsel them.
The Finance ministry has asked state governments to treat bankers on priority basis for Covid-19 vaccination. Bankers now have separate queues in the vaccination centres. We have taken up the issue with the state level bankers’ committee (SLBC). At the bank level, we have tie-ups with the various hospitals for check-ups and tests. We pay the fee and the employees are getting vaccinated.
The Union Finance ministry issued guidelines to all the state chief secretaries to consider bank employees as Covid warriors. They recognized that bankers need to be vaccinated because they are at the front end of the banking system. I think a major part of the vaccination exercise for most of the banks is complete. This could be over 80% on an average for ages above 45. All the states are co-operating.
Yes, that is the silver lining. In the fiscal fourth quarter ended 31 March 2021, net profit jumped 187% year-on-year to Rs 165 crore. Net interest income (NII) went up by 35% to Rs 1,383 crore and fee-based income grew 22% to Rs 315 crore.
For the full fiscal, net profit grew by 42% to Rs 550 crore.
Advances rose 18% and deposits 15%. While retail loans grew by 25%, MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) advances jumped 35%.
In the agriculture segment, we had non-performing asset (NPA) of 25%, which has now come down to 21%. Retail NPA has fallen from over 3% to 2% while bad loans in the MSME sector has trimmed to 10% from 13%.
The bank’s gross NPA was at Rs 7,780 crore, down from Rs12,000 crore a year ago. Recoveries for FY21 stood at Rs 2,200 crore and write offs at Rs 4,475 crore. Net NPA was at Rs 2,544 crore.
We had Rs 508 crore of recovery from Bhushan Power and Steel in the quarter. This was utilised to keep a Covid provision of Rs 700 crore. We also had a one-time settlement scheme, which helped us in recoveries.
There has been no official communication on this. I am only aware about it through various news reports.
