Karnataka Bank hopes to reach 12 per cent of export credit to net bank credit during 2012-13.

Speaking at an exporters’ meet, jointly organised by Karnataka Bank Ltd and the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) here on late Wednesday evening, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer P. Jayarama Bhat said the RBI has set a target of reaching 12 per cent export credit to net bank credit to banks.

At a time, when others are having an export credit of around 4-4.5 per cent till now, Karnataka bank is near 8-8.5 per cent. “With the help of exporters, I am confident that, we will achieve this and reach the target of 12 per cent credit set out by RBI,” he said.

In this regard, Karnataka Bank has identified centres such as Kolkata, Ludhiana, Jaipur and Ahmedabad to conduct such exporters’ meet. Such meets will be held in association with FIEO in the next three months.

Bhat said the bank has brought innovations as far as systems and procedures are concerned.

Though it has 18 designated branches for export credit operations, it has centralised all the activities in Mangalore at its Central Forex Hub. The hub, which was introduced four years ago, is yielding good results, he said.

Karnataka Bank Chairman Ananthakrishna said that 12 per cent export credit target is achievable by banks in the country.

Stating that the export credit in banking industry is at around Rs 2 lakh crore, he said it needs to be taken to Rs 6 lakh crore to reach the 12 per cent target.

However, he cautioned that this could be achievable only when the bottlenecks related to this are removed.

>vinayak.aj@thehindu.co.in