Parvez Ahmed Chairman & CEO JK Bank in a series of functions held at New Delhi inaugurated Bank’s HNI Branch at Connaught Place, Bank’s Retail Business Unit at Baba Kharak Singh Marg and new refurbished premises of Bank's Azadpur Mandi Branch, New Delhi in presence of Bank’s Executive President RK Chhiber, President Ashraf Ali, Zonal Head Fayaz Siddiqui and senior officials of the bank along with the prominent customers. Notably  CMD Bharat Hotels, Lalit Suri Hospitality Group, Jyotsna Suri joined the Chairman for inauguration of HNI Branch at Connaught Place & Sh Meetha Ram President and Vijay Talra Secretary Kashmir Apple Merchants Associations (KAMA) & members of different fruit association of the Mandi joined the inauguration at Azadpur Mandi Branch.Later in the evening Chairman & CEO JK Bank was felicitated by the JK Bank Officers in New Delhi who were recently elevated in the career progression of the Bank to the level of Executive Manager and Assistant Vice President
 
CMD Bharat Hotels, Lalit Suri Hospitality Group, Jyotsna Suri & Chairman & CEO J&K Bank, Parvez Ahmed jointly inaugurated its first High Net Worth Individual Premium branch outside the state at Connaught Place New Delhi.

The Chairman and CEO Parvez Ahmed after inaugurating the branches said,” Bank has taken a differentiated approach of segregating branches geography-wise and offering products as per the customer requirements. This is as per the medium and long term strategy of the bank to target a business mix of 70% retail and 30% Corporate business to strengthen the business model of the Bank which was earlier skewed heavily towards Corporate business and bank had a very bad experience due precipitation of large value Corporate NPAs when the investment and revenue cycle of corporate reversed and the small size of our balance sheet underwent losses of seismic   proportion beyond the absorption capacity and which were managed only due to relentless hard work of the staff and guidance of the Bank's Board and promoters state government . These exclusive differentiated branches will meet the special service needs of our existing and new clients in Connaught place area of New Delhi. The designated Branches have been housed in state of the art ambience aesthetically appealing and commensurate with the HNI Clientele that the Business unit has and which it is targeting to achieve.”
Dr. Jyotsna Suri who is also Chairperson of the FICCI Tourism Committee (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry)since 2008, Chairperson of the Confederation of Indian Industry's  Taskforce on the 'Revival of Kashmir', and an Executive Member of Hotel Association of India congratulated the bank and its staff for the new initiative. She spoke at length about the long relationship of the Bank with the Bharat Hotels group and appreciated the outreach of the Chairman of the Bank for the group besides keenly introducing novel initiatives for customer delight. 

Earlier Bank's Zonal Head Fayaz Siddiqui in his interaction presented a brief resume of bank's business in Delhi & NCR. He also elaborated on the HNI relationships of the bank in Delhi and business model of the HNI branches of the Bank. The Premier Banking Centre he elaborated has been designated to cater to clients with an aggregate credit limit of above One Crore and deposits of Five Lacs and above. The Pink Gold Saving Scheme and Pink Platinum Saving Scheme has been  specifically designed to attract High net worth female power in the national capital. All these specific variants are bundled with a host of features like Free Cheque Book facility, free collection of bills, Free issuance of demand drafts, pay orders ,Remittance facilities, free cash handling ,Forex facility to name a few.

Augmenting its branch network JK Bank opened its 936th branch at Baba Kharak Singh Marg New Delhi which will be Bank's 55th branch in the Delhi Zone of the Bank. The Branch which will be an exclusive retail branch of the Bank was inaugurated by the Chairman & CEO Parvez Ahmed.

After unveiling the foundation stone, Chairman  & CEO interacted with the prominent customers and staff of the bank and delineated the medium and long term strategy of the bank in which the retail branches will focus on augmentation of CASA and retail advances. “Our geographical footprint is across the country and after reorientation of our strategy of turnaround in profitability followed by strengthening our franchise in our home state for the last two years where we are continuously gaining market share with an asset growth of 25%, we are now aiming to strengthen our retail and mid segment SME business in rest of India. The product mix is also going to be differentiated as per the geography” said the Chairman & CEO Parvez Ahmed.

President alongwith the members of the Kashmir Apple Merchants Association(KAMA) lauded the customer friendly hassle free services of the bank since last 49 years. The bank said the President KAMA has always acted as a bridge between the apple growers in Kashmir and Apple Merchants In Azadpur with an extensive network of branches in Jammu and Kashmir and a 49 years old branch in Azadpur. 

The Chairman appreciated the role of merchants of Azadpur Mandi in developing the horticulture especially apple ecosystem in state of Jammu and Kashmir and the strong relationship of the Bank and Kashmiri fruit growers with the Azadpur Mandi merchants since 1970.  He acknowledged the trust of the Apple Merchants on the people of Kashmir who started investing money and relationship in the apple growers of Kashmir which became the sheet anchor for the development of Apple production which at present is 70% of the total production of apple in the country and contributed close to 25% in the state GDP with employment opportunities to the thousands of people in the state.

Later during an interaction with the Bank's Management team and representatives of various fruit associations on the occasion, the Chairman advised the Zonal Head to closely work with representatives of various fruit associations to understand their specific needs and introduce tailor made products for them with the best of the interest rates to start a meaningful relationship with them. Simultaneously he advised to look for opportunities to support new ventures in the setting up Cold storage infrastructure to minimize the wastage in the Mandi as due to lack of capacity a large quantity of agricultural produce goes waste every year. Additionally to address the problem of waste in the Mandi the Chairman advised to explore the possibility of collaborating with various stakeholders to set up effective waste management practices to give a clean look to the Mandi. Bank he added will be more than willing to collaborate with the stakeholders by providing financial support under CSR of the Bank. He urged upon the fruit associations in the Azadpur Mandi to educate the farmers for using various eco friendly and end user friendly packaging and assured to provide logistic support for organizing such awareness campaigns to minimize the waste in the Mandi to have a salubrious impact on the quality of life of the people working in the Mandi.

R K Chhiber Bank's Executive President spoke about the transformation of the Bank under the visionary leadership of Parvez Ahmed. He urged upon the members of the fruit association to take full benefit of the banks schemes especially the best in the industry Mandi Finance scheme of the Bank which has been customized to the requirements of Agriculture and horticulture traders.

The function ended with a vote of thanks by the Bank's President Ashraf Ali who thanked the Chairman and CEO for his keen contribution for financial empowerment of people. 

A felicitation function was organized by the JK Bank Officers in New Delhi who were recently elevated in the career progression of the Bank to the level of Executive Manager and Assistant Vice President in which the Chairman and CEO Parvez Ahmed was felicitated in presence of Bank's Executive President R K Chhiber, President Ashraf Ali, Vice President and Zonal Head Fayaz Siddiqui and all the officers who have been elevated to scale four and five of the Bank. 

The Chairman while addressing the officers after the felicitation said,”I firmly believe that the Human resource is the most important pillar of an organization. The strength of an organization is highly dependent on the people in the organization. In the history of our bank the dedication of human resource has been unprecedented across the industry. The bank throughout its journey of Eighty plus years has faced challenges of varying nature but it has always emerged triumphant. It has been possible only due to the untiring efforts of our workforce at all levels. You will recall that when we started this journey two and a half years back, many had doubts about our ability to achieve a turnaround. There was a lot of pessimism when we plunged into the loss in 2017 due to burgeoning NPAs catalyzed by overall degradation of banking environment coupled with legacy of NPAs in our balance sheet. But JK Bank arose like a Phoenix due to the indomitable spirit of all of us. You have proved skeptics wrong and achieved what appeared impossible to people. I must congratulate you for achieving one of the fastest turnarounds in the banking industry eight quarters of profitability. This feat alone should motivate you, as well as others to work to make our dreams a reality.”

The Bank he said is developing a strong pipeline of leaders to take care of the succession planning for future and hence we are affecting timely promotions across all cadres as part of its medium term transformation plan. Another part of our turnaround and transformation he added  is that the Bank as you know has reoriented its overall strategy in the rest of India. Now the Bank on a PAN India basis is targeting a business mix of 70% retail and 30 % Corporate. If we see the present business mix in rest of India we have 88% Corporate and 12% retail with a share of deposit of just 12% in the total deposits of the Bank. So you can see where we are and where we have to reach. The task in front of all of you is extremely large but doable. We just have to move out of our comfort zone to strengthen our franchise. I have full trust in your abilities to do it. Just have an actionable strategy in place and monitor the progress regularly to do the course correction if required.

The rest of India business advised the Chairman should not be seen as a drain on Bank's profitability which it is presently. We need to invest ourselves to to create a new identity by positioning ourselves as blithe and agile players in the retail segment and make the business and our presence viable on stand alone basis.  This is the time for all of you to take charge and evolve, and prepare to meet these future challenges with confidence and courage for the overall growth and prosperity of our beloved institution.

Highlight: The Chairman JK bank said,” Mandi is a microcosm of the country where we can see people from all the regions of the country. In fact Jammu and Kashmir being the largest producer of Apple and other fruits and dry fruits has a very strong relationship with the Mandi. A large number of fruit traders in various districts of J & K State particularly North & South Kashmir send their produce to Azadpur Mandi and our branch has been historically facilitating the trade transactions of fruit traders. Business unit has played a pivotal role for forwarding remittance payable to fruit growers, traders and commission agents and catering to their financial requirements. It has been a great moral booster for fruit growers and businessmen of J & K State in respect of facilitating trade transactions and satisfaction of credit needs. Besides Business unit has been catering to financial requirements of local traders of Azadpur Mandi and facilitating availment of various financial products/services. Business Unit all along has been symbol of excellence in delivery of financial products/services and played importing role in promoting brand equity and image of bank in Delhi.”