Dhanalaxmi Bank to remain Strong

Dhanalaxmi Bank,one of the oldest private sector Banks from Kerala has been in the news for quite some time unfortunetely not for good reasons. The bank underwent some drastic changes under the earlier CMD Mr Chaturvedi and it lost its grip on its traditional and conservative banking. Historically, the bank has some Union Issues which got aggravated with the massive induction of outsiders at a exorbitanly high salaries under Mr Chaturvedi's regime. Besides, the composition of assets and liabilities which had some semblance pf order and were manageagle had undergone sea changes with Whole sale deposits and whole sale lending replacing the retail deposits and retail borrowers causing hardships in terms of high costs and poor recoveries. With the exit of Mr Chaturvedi, some of the top Executives have left the organisation and with them the advances have become NPAs and the deposits have also disappeared. It will definitely take some time for the new Management to adjust the business composition both with HumanResources and Assets and liabilities.
The bank is traditionally strong with a large clientele and It has all the strengths to run on viable lines.It only requires good guidance from the RBI and support for some time to stabilise its recently changed management set up and bring back its own way of functioning with its traditional approach combined with the modern way of banking. The bank is strong and it has all ingredients to remain strong and grow strong.

Dr.T.V.Gopalakrishnan

( This comment appeared in The MInt dated 23/11/12)