JK Bank announces recruitment drive to support expansion

Bank’s business crosses 150,000 Cr mark. Credit penetration in the state to drive next phase of business growth: Parvez Ahmed

Srinagar, Oct 06: J&K Bank, State’s premier financial institution, today announced the recruitment drive for positions of Probationary Officers and Banking Associates. The bank has announced the recruitment drive in order to support the state centric business expansion and optimization of banks business in rest of India by expanding in the selected areas. The bank has already crossed business of Rs150,000 Cr mark.

The announcement is a major relief for unemployed educated youths in the state who are facing limited job opportunities as JK Bank is the second largest employment generator in the state. Currently, Bank is facing shortfall of staff owing to accumulated vacancies impending due to superannuation, resignations and opening of new Business Units over the past year and has been rationalizing staff available to meet immediate needs, said the spokesman.

The spokesperson further stated that the Bank’s Board is contemplating Campus Recruitments in all leading Institutions across the state besides other measures to induct meritorious and talented youths in a fair & transparent manner to meet the immediate shortfall in its manpower.

Interacting with the media, the Chairman and CEO of Bank Parvez Ahmed who successfully completed two years in Bank Leadership said, “The Bank has successfully undertaken the journey of transformation and turnaround with transparency and resilience at the heart of all policies adopted. The strategic shift in our business model to retail and AAA rated Corporates over the past two years have enabled the bank to cross 150000 Cr business mark as on 30th of September 2018 with J&K state business at 105000 Crores. “

“In our state JK Bank’s mission is to improve the economic profile of our people which can only happen when we improve the credit penetration in the state by lending more in the productive sectors especially to the entrepreneurs. At present only about 10-12% of our population is availing credit facilities from JK Bank and enhanced credit penetration will drive the next phase of our business growth in the near term. We intend to map the whole geography in the state in such a manner that nobody in the state should be travelling more than 5-10 Km for availing the banking facilities. This will not only improve deposit mobilization and credit penetration but has also lot of alignment with the vision of the state government to improve the socio economic profile of the people” added Parvez Ahmed.

Notably in a recent meeting held with Governor J&K, Satya Pal Malik, Bank assured its focus on playing a dedicated role in the socio-economic development through credit penetration and employment generation across the state with particular focus on remote areas.

The Chairman further said, “The Bank is also ready to inaugurate 35 Ultra Small Branches called JK Bank Easy Payment Units in Leh to offer innovative banking services to around 111 villages of Leh and Ladakh region by the end of October, 2018. The Pilot Project of Ultra Small Branch model in Leh is part of Bank’s vision to financially include the scattered population of the region facing difficulties in conducting year round bank transactions in the existing Bank network due to tough topology and harsh climatic conditions. The ambitious project also aims to generate employment opportunities for the local population. The Bank plans to replicate the same model in far flung areas across the state facing limited Bank accessibility and increasing outreach and credit penetration through local employment engagement.”

“The Bank is in the process of migrating its Government Employees business mobilsation to the alternate channels to be processed at the Central Processing Centres which is already successfully piloted with the J&K Police and number of educational institutions, This reduces our customer acquisition cost besides unlocking of the manpower which will be Judiciously utilized for business mobilization . We have a commitment to our stakeholders to improve the Cost to Income ratio to make it comparable to the best in the industry. So our focus is on rationalization of costs and increase in the income to improve the ratio.” asserted the Chairman.“As you know we are celebrating our 80th year of foundation with the theme of customer service and will be proactively reach out to the customers by more interactions to assess his needs and fulfilling the same to enhance his experience with our bank. We intend to create a strong brand in customer service which should be recognized globally” he added.

The Chairman concluded, “ NPA recovery to reduce the provisioning costs and unlocking of provisions will remain our thrust area as the banking industry is entering a tight liquidity regimes wherein margins are likely to shrink and we need to contain the higher provisioning costs to protect our profitability.”