Punjab National Bank gets SCOPE Meritorious Award for Corporate Governance
merisarkar news service
New Delhi, April 10, 2010
KR Kamath CMD PNB receiving the Scope Award from the President
India's leading public sector bank PNB has been awarded the Gold Trophy of Scope Meritorious Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance for the year 2008-09.
KR Kamath, Chairman and Managing Director of the Bank received the award from President Pratibha Devi Singh Patil on Saturday in New Delhi.
The function was presided over by Vilasrao Deshmukh, Minister of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises.
The bank said in a statement, "PNB is certainly honoured to receive the well deserved award. PNB is today recognized in the industry as an institution with strong fundamentals, large franchise value and good brand image but more importantly as a bank that has remained fully committed to its guiding principles of sound and prudent banking."
The bank said that it prides itself by having evolved into implementing the best governance practices of the times ever since its formation.
In a statement bank cited some example of its best corporate practices. It said, "PNB appointed Auditors in 1895 itself, the year of its birth, long before the same were made mandatory. Similarly the Bank established profit sharing bonus, provident fund and voluntary outside audit well before these were recognized as keystones of management."
The Bank was the first to introduce CBS - Centralised Anytime Anywhere banking amongst public sector banks in 2002. During 2008-09, the bank achieved the landmark of becoming the largest Nationalized Bank in India to bring ALL BRANCHES/EXTENSION COUNTERS into computerized Core Banking Solution (CBS).
The statement said, "The bank continues the practice of obtaining Certificate of Compliance of conditions of Corporate Governance from independent Auditors in line with the Listing Agreement of the Bank with Stock Exchange and publishes the same in its Annual Report."
PNB Said, "The Bank is guided (to the extent possible/applicable by the acclaimed OECD (Organisation for Economic co-operation and Development) principles of corporate governance as far as responsibilities of the Board of Directors, governance infrastructure, rights of shareholders, equitable treatment of shareholders, role of shareholders in governance, disclosures and transparency are concerned."
The Bank said that being a listed entity it believes in providing all the relevant information to its shareholders in a timely and transparent manner.
It said, "For the FY 2008-09, the rating agency - ICRA Ltd has reaffirmed the CGR2 rating of the bank's Corporate Governance practices, which reflects PNB's transparent ownership structure, improved risk management practices, well defined delegation of powers, accountability and an elaborate audit function carried out by both its Inspection & Audit Division and by independent Statutory Central Auditors.
The bank said that it would be pertinent to mention that the Bank bagged "Golden Peacock Award for Excellence in Corporate governance" for the third time in 2009.
