Succession planning something unheard of in the cooperative world is one of several initiatives being launched by Saraswat Bank led by new Chairman Gautam Thakur.
The plan will be a process of identifying people and developing them with the potential to fill leadership positions in the bank.
Talking about this Gautam Thakur says” we have launched 100 stars programme to identify the 100 star-professionals from among ourselves who could take over in future”.
”Majority of our people in key positions are now advanced in age and likely to retire. We need to have a fresh crop of talented individuals to fill positions, hence the plan, the newly elected Chairman explained.
“Banking is passing through a stormy patch due to the prevailing NPA and other issues and there is a need to take recourse to the mantra of stability and sturdity”, Thakur said unfolding his vision as the new Chairman of the largest UCB in the country.
“The most important thing for me is asset-quality which means the quality of borrowers. If we are able to be selective and able to assess the quality of our loans we are safe. Everything else flows from this”, Thakur said.
The second major focus is going to be retail business. Compared to wholesale, retail business is less risky as the loans for housing or vehicles are mostly quality loans where the risk is minimal. Also since it is spread out among a large number of borrowers, defaulting by a few, does not harm the bank as is the case with big corporate clients, Thakur underlined.
Earlier, Thakur was elected the Chairman of Saraswat Bank unanimously in Mumbai. The entire Board of Directors rallied behind him because they thought under his leadership the UCB could net in a turn-over of Rs one lakh crore in the current term.
Readers may note that the union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu was the Chairman of Saraswat Bank in the past. “I keep in touch with him and take his guidance at regular intervals”, Gautam had told this correspondent after wishing Prabhu on his last birthday.