Dhanlaxmi on firm footing, charges ill-motivated: Management

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

Asserting that the bank has not slackened its decades old 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 per cent, 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.

DLB executives said the bank was poised to make new strides in attracting business and upgrading technology and 'ill-motivated campaigns' by vested interests were not going to affect the growth.

They denied the bank was facing any probe by the Reserve Bank into the functional irregularities 'as being propagated by certain quarters'.

In the last four years, the bank had grown impressively with total business going up from Rs 6,000 crore to Rs 25,000 crore and the number of branches and employees also increased sharply, they said.

The bank officials also denied the charge that moves were afoot the bring it under the control of north Indian corporate interests.

The shares of the bank continued to be widely held and, except one person, no one held more than five per cent stake, they said.

On the current showing, they said the bank's total income increased from Rs 229.2 crore in Q2, 2010-11 to Rs 410.5 crore in Q2, 11-12, recording a growth of 79 per cent.

DLB said its total capital adequacy ratio stood at 10.70, against the regulatory minimum of 9 per cent.