My Dear Shareholders,
It is my privilege and pleasure to be again addressing you at this 29th
Annual General Meeting of DCB Bank Limited. While our country's economy has been
robust and the situation in our country has been stable, the world situation continues to
be volatile, the continuing conflicts in Eastern Europe and West Asia continues to be
causes of global concern, impacting civilians and regional stability, with fall outs on
global trade and commerce. China's economy continues to show signs of weakness. In
this situation, India's resilient economic progress is impressive, and its
contribution is significant for the entire world and makes us Indians proud. During the
past year, India became the world's most populous country, surpassing China. While
the population size poses challenges related to resource allocation, infrastructure,
social services, and job creation, it also provides the potential for demographic
dividend. India's market size and growing consumer middle class cannot be ignored by
other countries looking to expand globally. At the same time, our country must continue to
work towards creating education and employment opportunities for aspiring youth, bridging
the gap between the rich and the poor and reduce income disparities for long term economic
health and progress. Industrialization and infrastructure development creating rapid
urbanization needs to be balanced with issues of resultant air pollution, water scarcity,
climate change and environmental degradation.
While maintaining focus on uplifting the lives of millions, we need to
remain committed to protecting the environment for the future generations.
India continues to have a large and attractive self-employed (MSME /
SME) segment which has been the target market for your Bank.
The Bank's strategy continues to play out well and in FY 2024 the
Balance Sheet grew by 20 percent, Deposits by 20 percent and Loans by 19 percent. The NPAs
remained in control and the Bank was once again able to demonstrate profitable growth. Our
intention remains to double the Balance Sheet in about 3 -4 years while continuing to
improve productivity and profitability. Throughout FY2024, interest margin has been under
some pressure due to market conditions. The Bank continues to strengthen its deposit
franchise by creating new products, improved distribution, digitisation and service
quality. Within prevailing market conditions, we endeavour to grow our Current Account and
Savings Account balances (CASA) and improve the ratio of such deposits to our Total
Deposits in the coming months. The Bank is continuing to expand and create capacity for
stepping up growth. The total headcount increased from 9,905 in FY 2023 to 11,325 in FY
2024. I am happy to share with you that your Bank's Human Resources practices
continue to be recognized by and receive awards from leading industry forums. For the past
many months, a key challenge faced by the entire service industry is frontline employee
attrition. Our Human Resources team are constantly looking at newer ways of retaining
young talent in a highly competitive market for resources.
The major change that is going to happen in the Bank is the
"Change of Guard" which is the theme of this year's Annual Report. After
serving the Bank continuously for 15 years, Mr. Murali M Natrajan's term as per
extant guidelines for private banks ended on April 28, 2024. We thank Mr. Natrajan for his
tremendous contribution in growing the Bank from a di_cult situation in 2009 when he
joined, to what it is today and creating a strong platform / foundation for the
Bank's future growth. I am sure the shareholders will join me in thanking Mr. Murali
M Natarajan for his significant contribution in the Bank's journey and wish him well
in his future endeavours.
The Board of Directors, after due process, chose Mr. Praveen Kutty as
the successor to Mr. Natrajan.
Mr. Kutty's appointment for a period of 3 years beginning April
29, 2024, was approved by RBI on January 16, 2024. Praveen has been with the Bank since
July 2007 and has worked closely in several areas with Murali and the team. Praveen's
taking over the reins will ensure continuity of the Bank's journey and provide strong
leadership to the entire DCB Bank employee team. We are confident that Mr. Praveen Kutty
and the management team will continue to build on the good work done by Mr. Natrajan. I
request the shareholders in joining me to wish Mr. Kutty and his team all the very best
for the future.
Moving forward, while ensuring proper and robust governance with the
support of my fellow directors in the board and the management team, I intend to put more
emphasis on further improving customer service by strengthening our existing Empathy,
Speed and Quality (ESQ) program and other initiatives. We have a passionate and
hard-working Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) team and we have chosen CSR thrust
areas which are so important in the current situation of climate change and environment
degradation. I intend to work closely with the CSR team to make some meaningful impact
within our resources. You will be pleased to know that your Bank has planted more than 1
Lakh trees during the year under its CSR activities.
Your Bank's IT team is constantly upgrading its IT Infrastructure
to support seamless operations & business functions. The Bank has upgraded its
Treasury Investment Management & Money Market Module. The Mobile Banking is enhanced
with the addition of features like FATCA declaration, FD nominee registration, PAN Update.
_KYC refresh option is now available for our customers by Interactive Voice Response
(IVR)._ Your Bank has upgraded FinnOne application to 6.5 from 2.0, to simplify and ease
the loan fulfilment journey. I am happy to share that upon successful integration with the
Government of India Tax Portals you and our customers can pay income tax and GST through
DCB Bank. We are indeed grateful to our Promoters, Aga Khan Fund for
Economic Development S.A. (AKFED) for reposing faith in us and o_ering
to increase their stake beyond the earlier threshold of 15% which you have approved and
will be implemented upon receiving the RBI approval. Personally, for me, the last
17_months has been full of learning and excitement. I am grateful for the support from the
Board of Directors and the management team. I am satisfied that the Board of Directors has
worked to ensure smooth transition from the long serving MD & CEO to a most suitable
internal candidate. We intend to continue to focus on leading and empowering the
management team under the new MD & CEO to fuel the Bank's growth aspirations,
with the highest priority to meeting the expectations of the Reserve Bank of India, our
employees, shareholders and all stakeholders, besides scrupulously complying with all
regulatory requirements. Thank you dear shareholders.
Farokh N. Subedar
Chairman