Thiruvananthapuram: CPM leaders Gopi Kottamurikkal and MK Kannan took over as the founding president and vice-president of the newly-formed Kerala Bank director board. Other members of the director board were sworn in at the bank headquarters on Friday in the presence of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, ministers Kadakampally Surendran and TM Thomas Isaac.
LDF had swept all seats in the election to director board on Thursday. The bank, the new avatar of state cooperative bank, has presence in all districts, except Malappuram where UDF-led district cooperative bank refused to join hands with Kerala Bank project initiated by the government.
In his address, Vijayan said Kerala Bank – touted as the second-largest bank in state – will soon become the number one bank. The CM also urged Malappuram district cooperative bank to join hands as its refusal would tantamount to the denial of services that Kerala Bank could offer to people in that district.
Other members in the director board are S Shajahan (Thiruvananthapuram), G Lalu (Kollam), M Sathyapalan (Alappuzha), KJ Philip (Kottayam), KV Sasi (Idukki), MK Kannan (Thrissur), A Prabhakaran (Palakkad), P Gagarin (Wayanad), Sabu Abraham (Kasaragod) and Valsala Kumari (Kannur); all elected as representatives of primary cooperative societies. Gopi was elected as the representative of urban cooperative societies. S Nirmala Devi (Pathanamthitta), Pushpa Das (Ernakulam) and E Ramesh Babu (Kozhikode) had been elected earlier unopposed.
The government nominees to the bank are V Raveendran, RBI’s former AGM (banking sector); KN Harilal, member, state planning board (finance), PA Ummar, former sate cooperative bank president (cooperation); Mani Vithayathil (legal), Jiju P Alex , Kerala Agricultural University (agriculture).
After its inception on Nov 29, 2019, the bank has done business worth Rs 15,000 crore. Till Oct 31, 2020, the bank earned an operating profit of Rs 270 crore. The bank has 769 branches and 300 plus ATMs. Primary cooperative societies have 57% share in the bank.