The time had now come for a speedy consolidation work and he was happy that things had now vastly improved Calcutta," the chairman said. The time had now come for a speedy consolidation work and he was happy that things had now vastly improved in the bank. "My bank today stands on a sound footing," he added.

Financial institutions and banks hold oly 5 per cent in BOR and the remaining 69 per cent of the holding is held by the public, Mr Tayal said. There are as may as 40,000 share holders of the bank.

BOR had no threat whatsoever from any quarter either, said the chairman.In the working of BOR, Mr Tayal said that he and his family had no interference of any kind and the Board was supreme. "Our balance sheet is truly transparent and no effort whatsoever has been made to hide any thing," he said. Asked about the investments made by him and his family in the take over of BOR, Mr Tayal said that there was no dearth of money and the returns (on the investments) had yet to come. "I am a long-term player," he added.

In BOR, he had made investments for getting some sort of "national exposure." He had taken a calculated risk when he decided to make huge investments in taking over the management from the Bangurs. "My estimates have proved to be correct."

In the past, huge sums of the bank were taken out with the result that the non-perorming assets (NPA) had touched a high of Rs 400 crore. Two years ago BOR had a negative net worth. Today, the network had risen to Rs 125 crore and in the next three years it is estimated to become Rs 500 crore at least.

The capital adequacy ratio which was as low as 0.85 per cent in March 1999, had now increased to 7.4 per cent. It would soon become 9 per cent after the detachable warrants are converted.