Despite serious issues facing it in eyes, the second largest urban cooperative bank in the country, Cosmos Cooperative Bank has done reasonably well in the financial year. Though the AGM of the UCB is slated for August 4, its Chairman Milind Kale shared good news with Indian Cooperative.
Kale said that the Cosmos Bank has beaten odds, and has in fact emerged stronger. ‘In a matter of 5 months, the Bank saw huge rise in deposits and advances compared to the last 3 years. This has shown fruitful results and compared to March 2018, the bank’s set up at the end of March 2019 has increased by Rs 1,250 crore”, he informed.
The UCB, interestingly focused on retail loans rather than big ticket loans. In the circumstances after booking a loss of 50% as a consequence of the cyber-attack, i.e. Rs 50.21 crore, the net profit stands at Rs 21.83 crore and after appropriation of funds, the surplus for the year is Rs 75.54 crore, Kale added.
Overall, the year under review was extremely difficult and challenging. Yet, the bank has successfully enhanced its image by increasing business and thus it can be said the year under review was productive and optimistic, Kale added.
“We supported the staff and encouraged them to focus on rebuilding confidence.
Even, in a critical situation, the bank has made focused efforts on recovery and maximum amount till date of Rs 211.38 crore, has been recovered from NPA accounts and Rs 69.09 crore from write-off accounts. During the year under review, the amount in the net NPA accounts was reduced by Rs 28.24 crore which is 0.92% less than the last year, Kale underlined.
Besides, in three months following August 2018, the loss of deposits had negatively affected the loan disbursements. Even in these adverse circumstances, the bank has increased its net advances by Rs 828 crore. This was the highest loan disbursement in the last 4 years”.
Sadly, due to the cyberattack, dividend for the FY 2018-19 has not been recommended. “We have decided not to distribute dividend until the entire amount lost due to the cyber-attack is provided for”, informed its’ Chairman Milind A.
The 113th Annual General Meeting of the bank is to be held at Shivshankar Sabhagruha, Pune on 4th August.
Readers would recall that in 2018 an international gang of hackers siphoned off Rs 94.42 crore from the Cosmos Co-op Bank through multiple ATM swipes in 28 countries worldwide. Kale further said, “The Bank faced premature withdrawal of term deposits of approx. Rs 500 crore and saving deposits amounting to Rs 415 crore and lost Rs 3.70 crore in the form of card commission due to the cyber incident”.
