Kerala State Cooperative Agricultural and Rural Development Bank has always been in the forefront of committed activities aimed at bettering the Social scenario of the village community. As the Apex body of the Primary Co-operative Agricultural and Rural Development Banks in the State, it has spear headed such programmes and streamlined them, right from its inception. The KSCARD Bank has, in fact, come a long way since the formative year when it focused primarily on the redemption of prior debts of rural farmer. The accent has switched over to the production oriented financing policy, which involves long term loans for development needs. The Bank has also diversified its activities and formulated various innovative loan schemes so as to achieve the prime objective of comprehensive agricultural and rural development.

 

The origin of KSCARD Bank can be traced back to 1931, the year in which the State Land Mortgage Bank started functioning in the erstwhile Travancore State. Subsequently Land Mortgage Banks were established in Cochin and Malabar as well. With the formation of the Travancore Credit Bank in 1938, the State Land Mortgage Bank merged into it. As a successor to the Travancore Credit Bank, the Kerala Co-operative Central Land Mortgage Bank (KCCLMB) was organized on October 4, 1956 and started functioning on 25th October,1956 . Before long, the Land Mortgage Banks of Cochin and Malabar were also affiliated to it. With the enactment of the Kerala State Co-operative Agricultural Development Bank Act on 30.07.1984, the name of KCCLMB changed to Kerala State Co-operative Agricultural Development Bank (KSCADB) and again to Kerala State Co-operative Agricultural and Rural Development Bank (KSCARDB) with the amendment of KSCADB ACT in 1990.

 

The Bank started with 4 Primary Banks in 1956 and the federal structure is now established with 76 PCARDBs in all the 76 Taluks in Kerala. Through its wide range of loan schemes, Bank provides credit support to all walks of life to the poor farmers in the State.

 

KSCARD bank has 14 Regional offices in 14 Districts of Kerala, two zonal Inspection offices in North and south, an established training Institution in Ernakulam and the Head Office of the Bank in the heart of Thiruvananthapuram City.

 

The Bank is on steady profit from its inception and distributes credit at an average of 2500 to 2800 Crore Rupees every year. The main fund resource of the Bank is NABARD refinance. From 2012, Bank started accepting deposit from members and as on 31.3.22, the deposit outstanding is Rs.396.14 Cr.The paid up share capital of the Bank is Rs.229 Cr and investments is Rs.563 Cr.The loan outstanding is Rs.8035 Cr and Net Worth is Rs.745 Cr. The Working Capital is Rs.6950 Cr and current year profit is Rs.298.29 Cr. The yardstick of performance of any Banking Institution is CRAR (Capital to Risk Weighted Asset Ratio) and for KSCARDB it is 11.10.  The average profit of the Bank for the last 5 years Rs. 27.53 Cr.

 

The loan schemes of the Bank are elaborate in different category such as Farm, Non-Farm, Housing and Short Term and altogether there are 23 product lines. The loan schemes are designed in such a way that it provides credit support to almost all needs of a common farmer in his life journey. It starts in farm activities, helping in non-farm activities, agricultural equipment’s purchase, vehicle, and housing and even to educational needs of children and for purchase of consumer goods. It also helps him in marriage assistance, gold pledge, and personal loan and even to pilgrimage loan. With the 23 products, Bank completes all the life needs of poor farmers in Kerala.

 

The long term credit support with special emphasis on customer friendly service is the face mark of KSCARDB.

 

When all other Banking Institutions provides credit based on repayment capacity, PCARDBS provide all kind of relaxations especially in the time of Covid pandemic to its customers. Thus the Bank stands with the customers in good time and bad time.

 

On an average, the State level overdue of the Bank is 43% during Covid time. Now the Bank is concentrating on eradication of Overdue after Covid. From 2022-23 April, Bank has initiated Overdue Eradication Programme and customers are given one year time to clear overdues in small installments with all eligible relaxations allowed by Registrar of Co-operative Societies.

 

In 2022-23, Bank intends to distribute Rs.3250 Cr as credit and also starting direct deposit scheme through its 76 PCARDBs .Bank intends to attract depositors with high interest rates and thereby mobilizing high deposits. By this PCARDBs will be empowered to self-sufficient resource generation and the long term credit activities will be increased to best performance level.

 

KSCARDB is established as the best LDDB in India for years and even in the current year bagged the best performance award which was distributed in an July function on July 16, 2022 at Delhi by Sri.Amit Shaw, the Hon’ble Central Cooperation Minister.