Jammu and Kashmir Bank has reported annual profit of Rs 1,767 crore for 2023-24, which is the highest in its 85 year history.
This was announced by Jammu and Kashmir Bank’s Managing Director and CEO Baldev Prakash on Monday during a media briefing.
The highest ever annual profit was reported by the Bank, almost two months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that his government saved J&K Bank from bankruptcy. During his rally in Srinagar then, Modi had alleged that J&K Bank was a “big victim of nepotism and corruption” under previous governments.
Prakash said that there were some governance issues in the Bank in the past and the capital of Rs 1000 crore was granted by the union government to the J&K Bank.
“That ( Rs 1000 crore capital amount) was very very critical because capital adequacy ratio of the bank has to be upto minimum expectations as per the regulatory guidelines,” Prakash said when asked about PM’s statement about the bank.
He said there were some governance issues earlier and because of that it had come under the scanner of Anti Corruption Bureau
“We have taken very very concrete steps to ensure that there are no governance and compliance issues. The policies of the Bank are well defined and well institutionalized now and we expect that with the establishment of the state of art technology and as well as the best policies, we will be able to handle all these issues in a more effective manner ,” the MD asserted.
Prakash said it is a moment of pride for the bank that achieved the highest net profit in the history of the bank.
“This is all because of my staff, stakeholders and our top management. It is because of their efforts and guidance that we have been able to achieve this feat this time,” the MD said.
He added that the Bank board has recommended a handsome dividend.
“The board has recommended a dividend of Rs 2.15 per share ,” he said.
The MD said the other significant improvement has been in the asset quality of J&K Bank.
“We had our biggest problem in asset quality and because of the efforts we have been able to improve by bringing the gross non-performing assets to 4.08 per cent, while the net non-performing assets to 0.79 percent after a long time,” he said.
