By Bl Mangaluru Bureau

Copyright thehindubusinessline

Karnataka Bank will be focusing on increasing credit-deposit (CD) ratio to 80 per cent by March 2027, according to Raghavendra Bhat, Managing Director and Chief Executive Director of the bank.

Replying to queries from shareholders at the 101st Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Tuesday, he said there is scope for improvement in the CD ratio, which is presently at 70 per cent plus.

Stating that the target is to grow CD ratio to 75 per cent during the current year itself, he said: “Going forward we have to have 80 per cent of CD ratio, probably by mid next year or by March 2027.”

Interest income

Mentioning that the bank took a lot of initiative in this regard, Bhat said an improvement in CD ratio would improve all other connected ratios — be it interest income, net interest margin, return on asset and return on equity.

In its efforts to grow advances, the bank will be restarting retail loan processing centres (RLPCs). The bank had RLPCs in four regions earlier. Three more were added after him assuming charge as MD and CEO in July, he said.

These seven regions have already started contributing well, he said, adding, RLPCs will be extended to all the 15 regions of the bank.

On the assets side, the bank is targeting to grow its gold loan and retail, agri, MSME (RAM) portfolios. On the liability side, the bank has got a strong focus to grow its current account savings account (CASA) base, he said.

Stating that non-performing assets (NPA) are very much under control, he said the bank has got a system of monitoring assets. The head office has a credit monitoring cell and the regional offices have teams to monitor NPAs.

Compliance issues

Replying to the questions of some shareholders on investments in information technology (IT), he said a lot of investments has gone into the IT department in the last two years, and it is mainly for improvement of product and process efficiency, and for compliance issues. He hoped that these investments in IT would yield benefits from current year onwards.

On branch expansion plans, he said Karnataka Bank has 955 branches now. The bank also has plans for opening 30 branches during the current year. Of them, four branches have already been opened, Bhat added.

P Pradeep Kumar, Chairman of the bank, conducted the proceedings of AGM.

Published on September 23, 2025