Andhra Bank to open 50 more branches across country by end of fiscal

Andhra Bank is all set to open 50 more branches across the country by the end of the current fiscal.

Addressing mediapersons on the occasion of the mega loan mela on Saturday, R Balakrishnan, executive director of Andhra Bank, said: "We have already obtained licences to open 36 branches. Initially, we will open 36 branches by January-end, while the rest will be opened by the end of the current fiscal."

"At present, Andhra Bank has 1,147 branches across the country, most of which are located in Andhra Pradesh. In an effort to spread our presence to the North and North-East states as well, we have decided to open only six new branches in Andhra Pradesh and set up the remaining branches across the country,"Balakrishnan said.

"We are also planning to expand our core banking facility to all the branches. At present, the core banking facility is available at 540 branches. We plan to bring all our branches under the core banking network by the end of the current fiscal,"he added.

Balakrishnan said that the bank is also aiming at increasing its business to Rs 50,000 crore from the present Rs 40,000 crore in a short period.

"We have been focusing on retail lending this fiscal. Of our total lending portfolio last fiscal, the retail lending was only 22 per cent while it was 35 per cent so far in the current fiscal. We expect our retail lending portfolio to increase further by the end of this fiscal. We have also been organising several loan melas across the state and we expect to distribute retail loans to the tune of Rs 100 crore by the end of the current fiscal,"he said.

"So far, the bank has distributed educational loans to the tune of Rs 478 crore. Renowned educational institutions including BITS Pilani, and IIT and IIM institutions are showing interest to tie up with the bank to facilitate educational loans to their students. Already, we have tied up with the International School of Business and ICWAI university to extend educational loans,"he said.

"The bank has recently decided to reduce the interest rates on construction of rural godowns. As part of this, we are now charging only 8 per cent interest on this segment. So far in this fiscal, the bank has distributed close to Rs 70 crore for setting up rural godowns. We expect to extend another Rs 70-80 crore towards the construction of rural godowns by the end of the current fiscal,"he said.