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Andhra Bank CMD unveils ambitious plans

VIJAYAWADA: Moving aggressively to implement Core Banking System (CBS), the Andhra Bank plans to increase its business by Rs. 1 lakh crores by coming March.

Bank’s Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) R. S. Reddy said at a press conference on Monday that the bank had brought close to 300 of its branches under the gamut of CBS in the last three months to introduce technology-based services like ‘anywhere banking’, ‘anytime banking’, debit card, credit card and ‘mobile banking’.

“This fiscal year has been satisfactory and we anticipate a 20 per cent to 25 per cent growth by the end of March, by which time we would have opened 50 new branches,” he said. Referring to the cut in the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Mr. Reddy said it was to basically increase liquidity in the market. “However, it cannot be made a long term exercise. At the moment, markets are very volatile. We must wait for things to cool down,” he said.

Replying to a query on the impact of the Western crisis on Indian banking system, Mr. Reddy said a large chunk of the system was not affected directly. “They are badly in need of capital and so they are pulling out whatever investments they have made here. The indirect impact of the crisis is that when the dollar flies away, the rupee gets sucked.” Stating that the clientele base of the bank was over 18 million at the end of September 2008, Mr. Reddy pointed out that as part of migration to ‘centralised core banking solution’, already 270 of its branches had moved into the CBS gamut while plans were afoot to bring all the branches under this mode by the current financial year.

As part of ‘financial inclusion’, the bank had adopted two districts -- Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh and Ganjam in Orissa -- and achieved 100 per cent coverage. The bank had also introduced Smart Card scheme on a pilot basis in Warangal district and had plans to replicate it in other lead districts in due course. The bank had also opened over 2.4 lakh accounts under ‘no-frill accounts’ category by September-end.

The Andhra Bank had also signed an MoU with the Bank of Baroda and Legal and General Group of the UK to form a joint venture life insurance company. A joint venture with the Bank of Baroda and the Indian Overseas Bank at Malaysia was also in the offing, he said.

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