PNB aims for 12 lakh crore business by FY’19
NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant boosts confidence of PNB Leadership as Chief Guest
‘Every threat is an opportunity; PNB will bounce back in 6 months’: Sunil Mehta
New Delhi, May 1, 2018: Punjab National Bank’s (PNB) Circle Head Conference held at its Head Office in Dwarka concluded on Monday. The guidance from PNB leadership for FY ’19 is total business of INR 12 lakh crore which will account for 10.8% year-on-year growth. Mr. Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog graced the occasion as the Chief Guest and Keynote Speaker on the opening day of the conference. Addressing over 150 senior representatives from the leadership team of the bank including MD and CEO, Mr. Sunil Mehta, Executive Directors, Mr. KV Brahmaji Rao, Mr. Sanjiv Sharan and Mr. Venkata Prabhakar along with 13 Zonal heads, 76 circle heads, and divisional heads from Head Office, he spoke about PNB’s legacy and the need for it to stay focused and determined to emerge as the #1 bank in the country.
In his keynote address, Mr. Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, said, “My message to [PNB] is to stay determined, recognize gaps, recapitalize, resolve and reform. This is a unique bank which has been born from the vision of some of the greatest leaders of the freedom movement and been built very honorably from the foresight and determination of great institution builders.” Responding to a question on privatization, he cleared the air by stating that the government is not interested in privatization of Public Sector Banks (PSBs). He asserted that the bigger challenge for PSBs today is the advent of new players and increased competition and emphasized the role that PSBs play in nation-building.
Mr. Sunil Mehta, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer expressed his gratitude to his team who have stayed determined during tough times. Highlighting his plan for PNB, he said, “Today, what [PNB] should aspire for is to stay competitive. It must relook at its business processes, its market positioning and understand what the competition is doing to stay ahead of the curve. The Mission Parivartan team at PNB will serve as the bank’s own NITI Aayog (think-tank) and help drive change.” He underlined the fact that PNB has ‘the capability and capacity to come out of this situation’ and pointed towards the recent different changes in the bank’s processes such as the focus on Mission Parivartan, revamped underwriting of credit and strengthening of internal audit mechanism.
Over the past few months, PNB has been actively working towards improving internal systems by incorporating analytics and AI for reconciliation of accounts. With the help of third-party analytics, PNB will get access to contact information of PNB defaulters who have good credit record with other lenders and identify and automate profitable lending strategies and minimize credit and fraud risk.
The Bank has strengthened the process of underwriting of credit to wean out any possibility of fraudulent behavior and ensure a fair evaluation. The process has been divided into four components with different employees focused on – a). sourcing, b). appraisal, processing and underwriting C.) documentation and disbursement and d). recovery
Internal audit process has been augmented to give higher weightage to the off-site monitoring mechanism. The analysis from the off-site monitoring mechanism will reduce dependence on physical inspection and audit to identify risks and the detachment between the front office and off-line monitoring system will drive greater transparency in reporting.
PNB has crossed a significant milestone of a 100 million plus customers who continue to have strong faith and confidence in the 124-year-old bank. It was one of the few Banks to show profit during Q3 FY ’18 and continues to leverage the power of 5Cs i.e., one of the highest CASA Share, Stable Credit Quality, Robust Credit Growth, Adequate Capital and Low cost to Income Ratio.
