Central Bank MD & CEO calls for balanced loan growth

Kalyan Kumar, Managing Director & CEO of Central Bank of India, is on a two-day visit to Hyderabad from October 29 to 30, 2025, following his assumption of office on September 30.

During his maiden visit, he addressed staff at a town hall meeting on October 29, emphasising the need to rebalance the bank’s loan portfolio. Currently, the bank’s advances are concentrated on retail, agriculture and MSME (RAM) sectors. Kalyan Kumar urged employees to step up corporate lending, aligning with his vision for the bank to play a stronger role in corporate credit and secure sustainable interest income streams.

About 60 per cent of the bank’s loans are linked to the repo rate benchmark. Customers have benefited from recent repo rate cuts, while deposit reprising is occurring with a lag, contributing to a decline in net interest margin from 3.41 per cent in September 2024 to 2.89 per cent in September 2025.

The visit forms part of a strategic outreach to strengthen corporate partnerships. On October 30, Kalyan Kumar will hold one-on-one interactions with existing and prospective customers and meet exporters to discuss initiatives, share updates and explore future credit growth opportunities.