Bank of India has launched Project Connect, an initiative aimed at reviving the bank after it recorded losses for 2 consecutive years and a substantial increase in NPAs. The bank’s new MD and CEO Dinabandhu Mohapatra, who took special interest in conceiving the project, said it is intended as a ‘connect’ between the bank’s staff and clients in order to improve the services offered by the bank to its customers. The aim is to reduce bad loans and to improve the share of low cost deposits and retail credit, he added. The bank had posted huge losses for two consecutive years and has run up total bad loans of close to 13% in 2016-17 before making provisions. Mohapatra is hopeful that the RBI would not impost any fiscal restrictions on the bank as it had done on 6 other banks as he intends to bring in improvements in the bank’s functioning. RBI has initiated prompt corrective action (PCA) on IDBI Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, UCO Bank, Central Bank of India, Dena Bank and Indian Overseas Bank by putting restrictions on their banking activities.
