Chairman's Insight

Dear Shareholders,
I am glad to present to you the Annual Report for the Financial Year 2020-21. It has indeed been an unprecedented year in itself, a year which pushed the world to its edge. It has been a year of lockdowns and tremendous uncertainty; yet it has also been a year of hope and resilience – a year which tested our abilities and brought out the best in us. Your Bank stood up to this challenge and ensured that uninterrupted banking services were provided to customers during this period while continuing on its growth path with single-minded resolve.

At the same time, we have been taking several initiatives which have been embedded in the larger and consistent organizational plan of the Bank. Over the past several years, we have had a focused approach on increasing the retail lending of the Bank. Today, the Retail - Wholesale Ratio is 52% which was around 36% just 3 years ago. The thrust on retail lending ensured that we could spread the risk across several products and a large number of small borrowers and thus keep a check on non-performing assets. The retail clients to whom we have lent commercial advances of less than ₹ 10 crore are substantial in number. As these retail clients grow in their respective businesses, their requirements of commensurate bank funding will also increase. Today’s retail banking client is tomorrow’s wholesale banking client. With increase in ticket size of the advances granted to such customers, we slowly plan to handhold these retail customers as they undergo their transition to the wholesale banking segment. The growth potential in this segment is huge. Besides, with the prior experience of dealing with these clients, it may be a win-win situation both from the client’s as well as the Bank’s perspective.

In order to lay thrust on the marketing function, your Bank is realigning its organizational structure, thereby segregating branches as marketing verticals and back offices as operational verticals. Thus, an enabling operational structure is being put in place to ensure a focussed approach towards various banking activities, in general & sales and business development, in particular.

Further, the marketing team has been strengthened by creating a dedicated team of young and enthusiastic Business Development Officers (BDOs). The BDO Team has been catering exclusively to the sales and retail business development function of the Bank and has garnered around ₹ 900 crore during the year, which is about 20% of retail advances. With the successful initial results of the BDO Team, we are now planning to strengthen this team further. We are confident that this team will pave the way for future growth of your Bank as the economy slowly starts picking up. We are creating a new Marketing Team for Wholesale Banking on similar lines.

At the Board and the Management level also, we endeavour to constantly engage in a dialogue with the customers, to get a sense of the needs and requirements of our clients. During our interactions, we noticed that sometimes there is a time lag between customers approaching a bank for a loan and the final sanction/disbursement of the loan. We do have a mechanism in place to reduce the Turn - Around - Time (TAT). However, we want to ensure that even this little time lag does not cause inconvenience to our customers (especially in cases of retail loans like housing or educational loans for admission to foreign universities). We are therefore coming up with a scheme of pre-sanction for such loans in which a sanction letter will be extended to a customer upfront, subject to subsequent fulfilment of the documentation requirements. This will provide solace to such retail customers and free them from unnecessary anxieties at such times.

To cater to the needs of the new age customers, we continue to increase the bouquet of our digital product offerings. We have recently received the prestigious Winner’s Award for ‘The Best Technology Bank’, ‘The Best IT Risk and Cyber Security Initiatives’ and Runner-Up Award for ‘The Best Digital Financial Inclusion’ in the Co-operative Banks’ category from the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA). Such recognition inspires us to keep improvising and challenging our boundaries. We have laid specific emphasis on penetration of digital products which has culminated in increase in digital transactions over the past few years.

We have successfully implemented new Core Banking Solutions (CBS) recently. The existing CBS was implemented when your Bank had a business level of ₹ 5,000 crore. The CBS helped us scale up our operations and has supported us as we touched ₹ 67,000 crore of business. As a proactive measure however, we initiated a shift to Finacle, the CBS offered by M/s. EdgeVerve Systems Ltd., a whollyowned subsidiary of Infosys Ltd. Finacle is presently being used by several large PSU banks as well as private sector banks and we are confident that the inherent functionalities and capabilities of Finacle will help support your Bank’s growing business in the coming years. The software upgradation is aptly supported by strengthening of the cyber security controls as well as the risk management and internal audit systems of the Bank.

Your Bank has strongly emerged as a customercentric and customer-friendly organization, delivering the best services, a fact which is once again recognized by Forbes. I am delighted to inform you all that your Bank is once again in the Forbes list of World’s Best Banks for the year 2021 i.e. two years in a row. This is indeed a proud moment for the entire Saraswat Bank Team. With our sustained efforts of operational excellence on one hand and undertaking organizational transformation on the other, we are confident of taking Saraswat Bank to the pinnacle of success. We thank each and every one of you for your support and encouragement as we continue to steer your Bank to new heights of glory.

Gautam E. Thakur