Andhra Bank receives Rs 8,000 crore in CASA deposits in 8 days

It has recently figured in the RBI list of top 10 banks that have received highest deposits post demonitisation

Andhra Bank has received Rs 8,000 crore deposits in current and savings accounts (CASA) after the Centre demonitised the existing Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes on November 8, 2016, according to a senior official of the bank.

In financial results announced recently, the bank said that its CASA deposits grew by just Rs 3,026 crore at Rs 48,031 crore in September, 2016 as compared to Rs 45,005 crore as at September 2015. 

Compared with the 6.7% year-on-year growth in the low-cost deposits in the second quarter, the bank was able to get Rs 8,000 crore in just eight days time, almost Rs 1,000 core per day.

Andhra Bank, which has reported a total business Rs 3.19 lakh crore in the second quarter, has almost half of its 3,000 branches located in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It has recently figured in the RBI list of top 10 banks that have received highest deposits post demonetisation.

In the normal course, the bank gets higher volume of deposits in the form of term deposits. During the second quarter, the bank's retail term deposits grew by Rs 9,448 crore or 15.9% at Rs 68,979 crore when compared to Rs 59,531 crore in the same time last year.

Though the bank was doing well on the deposits front, it has been facing a cash crunch in Andhra Pradesh, particularly in rural areas where people were finding it difficult to exchange Rs 2,000 currency notes with the smaller denomination currency notes outside the banks, according to the officials. "We were still waiting for the arrival of new Rs 500 currency notes and they are yet to reach the AP chest. Senior government officials have already met with RBI officials in Mumbai to request for the supply of lower denomination notes to the state," a senior Andhra Bank official told Business Standard.

Meanwhile, the banks have started distributing the new Rs 500 currency notes in Hyderabad through ATMs as well as to people who are visiting the bank branches to exchange the old high denomination currency notes.

While the Union Finance Ministry has asked the banks to use indelible ink to check the problem of repeat visitors, the same was not being used in all the places due to shortage of ink, the bank sources said.