Agriculture, retail loans drives J&K Bank’s profit growth: J&K Bank MD Amitava Chatterjee
Says bank has set a target of Rs 5,000 crore loan in the agriculture sector
Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Bank’s focus on agriculture and retail lending has helped it register a record profit of Rs 485 crore in April-June, the bank’s MD & CEO Amitava Chatterjee said on Monday.
J&K Bank on Friday said its profit after tax at Rs 484.84 crore in the April-June period of FY26 was the highest-ever in a first quarter so far. The latest Q1 profit was 16.7 per cent higher against Rs 415.49 crore recorded in the corresponding quarter a year ago.
Chatterjee further said the bank would have posted its highest-ever profit for a quarter, had it not set aside Rs 87 crore towards investment in the RRB, which was necessitated due to the amalgamation of Ellaquai Dehati Bank in the Union Territory into Jammu and Kashmir Grameen Bank.
“There has been a total transformation in the way the bank has put up a product. We were almost totally dependent on Kissan Credit Cards. Now we have introduced an all-purpose term loan for agriculture that creates an investment credit. The agri sector has already seen a growth of Rs 1,500 crore this quarter,” Chatterjee told PTI in an interview.
The MD said the bank has set a target of Rs 5,000 crore loan in the agriculture sector this fiscal and he hopes to cross that mark with much ease.
“Our target is to have Rs 5,000 crore this year but as I look at it, it should be much more than that. The way it has been accepted, and the offtake, I would expect it to be more than Rs 5,000 crore,” he added.
Chatterjee said the agri loan product introduced by the bank right in the beginning of the financial year has been a major success.
“The offtake has been so good. I would say that it has beaten other banks, the big banks also. I have seen big banks not having that kind of growth in the agri sector, the kind of growth that we have had,” he said.
Chatterjee said the bank’s retail loan business in rest of India has witnessed phenomenal improvement after the lender focussed on expanding its key products there.
“It (expansion) has gone very well in the rest of India, especially the retail products. The growth has been phenomenal, it is 50 to 75 per cent improvement over last year. It was just a matter of identifying a few products since in the rest of India, you compete with all the other banks,” he said.
Chatterjee said the bank will be very selective on the products and focus on those which have a universal acceptance like home loans and auto loans.
He said while the retail segment has shown positive results, the bank has shed its exposure to the corporate sector.
“Retail has had very good growth this quarter. The corporate has not, because we generally lend to large corporates and they are very very competitive in nature. Consciously, we have shed a bit of it,” he said.
The J&K Bank MD said during the last quarter of the previous financial year, he had very little time to work on internal processes, but the measures taken in the recent past would lead to better business growth.
“We have started it from the first quarter and it went mostly on correcting the processes which will lead to better business growth. For example, we are creating centralised processing sales for corporate, SME as well as agri,” he added.
He said that the Jammu and Kashmir Bank’s website was subjected to a series of cyberattacks from Pakistan after the Pahalgam terror attack, but a robust security system ensured all such attempts were foiled, said MD and CEO Amitava Chatterjee on Monday.
Chatterjee said the cyberattacks were launched from the neighbouring countries and beyond within one day of the Pahalgam attack that left 26 persons, mostly tourists, dead.
“(April) 23rd onwards, preventive steps had been taken by this bank. The (cyber) attacks were from all sides, whether neighbouring countries or beyond. But we have managed to prevent any disturbance to any of the applications because of the strong cybersecurity system that we have,” Chatterjee said.
The head of the financial institution said that the cybersecurity system is so robust that the Jammu and Kashmir government has appointed the bank’s cybersecurity chief as an advisor.
“We have cyber security to that level. Now, even the UT government recognises that, and our cybersecurity officer has been engaged as an advisor by the UT government to direct them,” he said.
Chatterjee said the Reserve Bank of India rates the J&K Bank as one of the best in terms of cybersecurity among all banks.
“(Also) Indian Banking Association (IBA) recently came up with awards on cybersecurity. And, in our size category, we got all the awards for the best cybersecurity,” he added.
Asked if the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor affected the bank’s business, Chatterjee said while there was a definite impact, the local economy was on a revival path after the launch of the Vande Bharat train and the start of the Amarnath yatra.
“It (Pahalgam attack) has had a very strong impact on the tourism in the UT. If you look at the hotel bookings even now, they are not so good. It has improved (though). Since the start of the Vande Bharat Express and Amarnath yatra, it has shown signs of revival, but the Pahalgam attack has impacted (loan) repayments,” he said.
Chatterjee said, despite the issues, he was happy with the way borrowers behaved in Jammu and Kashmir.
“The slippages have still been below one per cent, in spite of all this. If you look at the tourism and transport sector, it has been badly hit. But still, I would say people have tried to repay, and we are trying to help them,” he added.
Chatterjee said through the UT Level Bankers Committee, the bank has proposed to the government to notify this geography as a disturbed area (for banking purposes) post Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor.
“Once that notification comes, and it is almost about to come any day, we will be able to give borrowers the rephased loans and, in case of need, some additional help too,” he said.
