Aiming the forex business of Rs 8,500 crore envisaging an addition of Rs 2,400 crore for the year 2007-08, the Chairman and CEO of Karnataka Bank Ananthakrishna, emphasized on the diversification of the export credit to various sectors in order to spread the credit risk of the bank. Inaugurating the annual ‘Foreign exchange business review conference-2007’ convened to review the performance of the bank under forex business during the year 2006-07 and to discuss the plan of action for the ensuing year here on Monday, he highlighted the need to adhere to the FEMA/RBI guidelines for strict compliance.
During the current year the bank has already ventured into a new operational set up named ‘Central Processing Centre’ for carrying out centralized foreign exchange operations and in this  connection the Chairman has released  the manual of operational guidelines. Congratulating the branch heads for having surpassed merchant turnover target, he emphasised on maintaining the tempo of growth in the years to come. He envisaged for distributing the risk by advancing to other commodity sectors where the other banks have not exploited. He further advised on focused attention on increasing the NRI accounts for which bank is proposing for setting up NRI Cell at Mumbai.  
All the Branch heads were advised to scout for new forex clients and achieve the targets of the ensuing year despite the present scenario of appreciation of rupee vis-à-vis  which is not favourable to the exporters. For 2007-08, the bank has targeted forex merchant turnover of Rs.8500 crore and export credit of Rs.1450 crore.
General Manager (Credits) G K Bhat, in his introductory address advised the branches to go for aggressive marketing for increasing bank’s  export clientele base and stressed about containing the NPA level.  During the year 2006-07, the bank has achieved a forex merchant turnover of over Rs.6100 crore showing a growth of around 31.53 pc. The export credit outstanding of the bank has crossed Rs.1100 crore amounting to 11.47 pc of Net bank Credit of the bank. 
Deputy General Manager B Vittal Rao, Assistant General Manager I Santhosh Kumar, FED Manager Jagadeesh Udupa, and heads of all regions, international division, overseas branches and forex designated branches of the bank participated.