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Central Bank of India has undertaken an image makeover exercise to give its customers the feel of a NextGen bank.
The bank refurbished 480 branches in the last fiscal and plans to renovate another 500 branches this financial year.
The bank’s Executive Director, BK Divakara, was in the city to inaugurate the renovated premises of the bank’s Mid-Corporate Finance Branch and Main Branch on Friday.
Speaking to Business Line on the sidelines of this function, he said the bank’s Board has set aside a sizeable budget for the refurbishment exercise.
“This main branch commenced operations from this premises in March 1935,” he said, bringing to mind the rich tradition and history of the bank.
The total outlay for refurbishment of branches has been estimated at ₹650 crore.
Asked the need for taking up this mammoth exercise after all these years, he said, “We not only believe in customer satisfaction, but in their delight as well to sustain and survive in this competitive environment.”
The 103-year-old bank has a branch network of 4,600, and has been adding around 250 to 300 branches every year over the last three to four years.
“Our focus at this juncture is 3S – skill development and upscaling our service and speed (by reducing transaction turnover time),” Divakara said.
On recruitment, he said, “We recruited 3,000-plus candidates over the last two years. We intend to re-deploy our staff this year. Our strength at 40,000-plus employees at present is adequate to meet our staff requirement over the next two years. We will look to recruit specialised officers, but that will be need-based. Our emphasis is on improving the per employee productivity.”
On NPA management, he said, “The bank’s gross NPA stood at over 6 per cent last year. This is expected to come down as things are looking better now. We have nevertheless formed two core teams — a recovery team and legal team — in our regional office to keep NPAs under check.”
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