Andhra Bank's retail loan-book to grow 50% in 2010-11

Public sector lender Andhra Bank on Wednesday said its retail loan-book would grow by around 45-50 per cent in 2010-11 on the back of a healthy demand from the home and gold segments. In 2009-10, the bank saw its retail loan-book grow by 48 per cent.

“Overall, there is a pick-up in demand for retail loans. Clearly, consumer confidence has come back and we expect to sustain the growth momentum in the current financial year as well,” Andhra Bank’s General Manager, Anjaneya Prasad, told reporters here.

The lender disbursed around Rs 54,000 crore last year, of which Rs 8,900 crore comprised retail advances. Out of this, home loans comprised Rs 3,480 crore, education loans 1,647 crore, non-agriculture gold loan Rs 1,382 crore and personal loans Rs 971 crore, Prasad said.

With gold demand expected to be strong in the months ahead, the lender aims to grow its gold loans to Rs 3,000 crore from the present Rs 1,400 crore.