The Jaipur Central Cooperative Bank has been in existence for last 68 years. Its main target audience is farmers and it wants to take care of their financial needs. As many as 300 PACS and 31 registered cooperative societies are affiliated with the bank, which operates in the entire Jaipur district and has 25 branches. The bank has not increased the number of branches during last 3 financial years. Under Raj Meena, MD, the bank has installed 7 ATMs during the last financial year in addition to the 2 existing ones. It is also planning to add 1 branch in the current FY.
DEPOSITS UP, CREDIT DOWN
The bank has been offering as much as 90% of its credit to agriculture sector and allied activities. Other than farmers, it has extended housing and personal loans. Its profit has increased to Rs30.78 million in the last FY from Rs29.68 million in the previous year. The share capital has increased by Rs91.3 million to Rs521.3 million in 2018-19.
Meena says the total amount of deposits has increased to Rs8.40 billion in 2018-19 from Rs6.34 billion a year ago. However, the total amount of loans extended by the bank has reduced to Rs8.05 billion in 2018-19 from Rs8.23 billion in the previous year. “We want to increase the aggregate deposit mobilization to touch Rs9.35 billion and the total loan outstanding to be around Rs9.50 billion,” he says.
The Rajasthan government has in last two financial years announced 2 loan waiver schemes for the indebted farmers. Meena says as a result of this, the bank has credited Rs4.30 billion and Rs5.06 billion in the corresponding accounts of the respective borrowing members. The state government has still to clear Rs5.83 billion to the bank.
CROP LOAN PORTAL
As farmers normally have to travel from the hinterland to banks mostly located in urban or semi-urban centers to avail of loans, and as they fail to get loans well in time in cases, Rajasthan has pioneered a scheme whereby farmers can get loans online. It is the first state in the country to offer this facility. This facility, launched in June 2019, is meant only for cooperative banks.
Says Meena: “Farmers can get loans by applying online through the Kisan Samadhan portal. They will have to register online using Aadhaar or government bank account number or other valid documents, using e-Mitra centers. Registration will be done by biometric verification. After this, crop loans to member farmers will be disbursed through Digital Member Register (DMR). The entire process of receiving applications from farmers has been made online.”
IT PLANS
All the 25 branches of the bank are under CBS since June 2013. The bank has directly migrated from manual to CBS in 2013. With the implementation of CBS, customers are able to do transactions from any of the branches and this has led to an increase in customer base, which in turn has ensured increase in deposits year on year. The bank is planning to onboard Public Financial Management System (PFMS) and Central Know Your Customer (CKYC).
STAFF TRAINING
The bank has data center located at its head office at Jaipur. Meena says all the testing and implementation of the data center was done in terms of the requirements of DCCBs.The CBS is customized in order to introduce new schemes for the customers and also incorporate new policies that the bank introduces from time to time. FIS Global is taking care of the networking. Meena also highlights that all the staff members of the bank are computer literate. The bank in association with the vendors, organizes periodic training programs to update the technological knowledge of the staff.
BUSINESS, TECH TARGETS
The bank is planning to introduce alternate channels soon. Says Meena: “We are proposing to add mobile banking, internet banking, etc, for the benefit of our customers. We are in the process of fulfilling the various norms set by RBI in this regard. We have a customer base of 532,400 and our plan is to add around 35,000 new customers this FY. We are targeting to increase our business volume to reach Rs18.85 bn by March 2020. Our aim is to make profit of Rs31.50 mn in the current FY. This will be possible as we are adopting new technologies and offer better services. ”
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