The Government today signed an MoU with J&K Bank facilitating categorization of the state government employees as preferential clientsof the Bank entitled to slew of benefits under various banking facilities.The MoU was signed by Principal Secretary Finance, Navin Kumar Choudhary on behalf of J&K Government and Chairman& CEO J&K Bank Parvez Ahmad.Speaking on the occasion, Navin termed the MoU as a significant arrangement which will further strengthen the relationship between the State and the Bank. He said J&K Bank isa unique financial institution it is the only bank in the country where the state government is a shareholder. “Not only the State government but all the government employee are the shareholders of the Bank,” he said.Navin said the government will provide updated and verified data from its Centralized Personalized Information System (CPIS) about all the employees to the Bank, which will help the later to provide various facilities to the employees at ease and without need of further verification.The Principal Secretary Finance appreciated the Bank for its outstanding performance and being the first and only listed large company in the State. He said the Bank is far ahead of other financial institutions when it comes to Credit Deposit Ratio which stands at 74% as against below 50% ratio of other banks operating in the State.
On the occasion, Navin Choudhary called on the Bank to further upgrade its facilities in line with world class banking. He asked them to resolve the issue of non-working of JK Bank card on various online platforms so that people derive all facilities from the bank cards.Giving details of the MoU, Chairman J&K Bank said around 4.5 lakh State Government employees comprise Bank's largest client base and the latest arrangement will further strengthen the bonds between the two institutions.Giving details, he said the Secretariat employees will receive discount of 75 percentage basis point and other state government employees will get discount of 50 percentage point while availing loans from the bank. Furthermore, after applying for loan facility via Bank’s App or on phone, the loan will be credited to beneficiary account in as little as two hours’ time. "The employees don't even need to visit any branch of the bank and all loan processing charges will be waived off," said Parvez. "There will be no fee for opening of bank account and added facilities include maintaining zero balance account, free debit card, free online banking, concession on transaction fee, enhanced ATM usage etc.He said the employees will also get discounted locker facility ranging from zero fee to fifty percent discount.The Chairman said that 35 percent of bank's State portfolio which amounts to around Rs 6000 crore comes from the government employees and the MoU is aimed to derive mutual benefits and increase the portfolio size. He said the bank has already put a similar mechanism in pace JK Police and has successfully increased the client base from 25000 to 45000 among the police department only.Chairman said JK Bank is committed to the socio-economic development of the State and it believes in carrying its people ahead in the march of progress. "When the people progress and State develops, the Bank will automatically achieve newer heights," said the Chairman.The meeting was attended by a number of officials, representatives of various departments and banks.