Dhanlaxmi on firm footing, charges ill-motivated: CEO

Thiruvananthapuram: Refuting allegations that its functioning is flawed, the top brass of private lender Dhanlaxmi Bank (DLB) has said it is on a firm footing and poised to make new strides.

Asserting that the bank has not slackened its commitment to Kerala, DLB’s MD and CEO Amitabh Chathurvedi and senior executives told a press meet here last evening that the latest results would disprove the “ill-motivated campaign being run by certain quarters”.

The bank’s total business increased from Rs 16,554 crore as on September 30, 2010 to Rs 23,945 crore as on September 30, 2011, marking a growth of 45 percent, they said.

Chathurvedi’s comments come on the heels of the issue figuring in the Kerala assembly, and Rural Development Minister K C Joseph assuring the House that the alleged flaws in the bank’s functioning would be brought to the notice of the Centre and RBI.

Former Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac (CPI-M), who raised the issue in the House on Friday, held the bank’s credit deposit (CD) ratio had fallen sharply and it reflected shifting of large volume of its business to outside Kerala.

The All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC) had recently raised concerns over DLB’s financial health.Chaturvedi said such misgivings expressed by even responsible quarters was the result of the “negative campaign” being run by certain quarters including certain unions, “which did not even represent 10 per cent of the staff”.

The CD ratio of DLB in Kerala, at around 52, was comparable to that of any old generation private bank in the State and majority of its branches were located in rural and semi-urban areas.

There was no move to shift the bank’s headquarters from Thrissur in Kerala to Mumbai or get it merged with any other institutions, DLB Executive Director P G Jayakumar said.

PTI