Assam Gramin Vikash Bank looks to expand network, deposits

"Between December 2011 and December 2012, our deposits have increased to Rs 4,982 crore from Rs 4,475 crore, registering a rise of 11.3 per cent. Going ahead, in 2013-14, we are aiming to raise our deposits by 18 per cent," AGVB Chairman Shio Shankar Singh told reporters here.

He said the AGVB, a joint undertaking of central and Assam government and the United Bank of India, is also looking to increase the number of full-fledged branches by at least 10 per cent every year.

"We have 370 branches across the state and another 10 will be operationalised by March end. In the next financial year, we look to increase the total number by another 10 per cent," Singh said.

AGVB has already migrated all its branches to Core Banking Solution (CBS) platform and Singh said all preparatory works for extending ATM facility to its customers have been accomplished in association with the United Bank of India.

"All AGVB customers will be able to avail the services of UBI ATMs from March this year and in June, we will roll out our own ATM service," Singh said.

AGVB has just signed a MoU with the Assam government for payment of wages to beneficiaries of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in 12 districts of Assam.

"We will be disbursing the MNRGEA wages in Dhubri, Bongaigaon, Morigaon, Barpeta, Nalbari, Udalguri, Sonitpur, Dhemaji, Golaghat, Sibsagar, Hailakandi and Baksa districts," Singh said.

He said for the purpose of disbursal of MNREGA wages, AGVB has engaged customer service points (CSPs) in 744 villages, having no banks, across Assam and established 45 ultra small branches (USBs).

He said AGVB has been able to increase its credit-deposit (CD) ratio to 57.82 per cent till December 2012, up from 54.29 per cent in December, 2011.

"Our CD ratio is the highest among all banks in Assam and much higher than the state average of 46.60 per cent," he said.

Singh added: "We have also brought down our non-performing assets (NPAs) by 21.8 per cent during the first nine months of the current fiscal to Rs 128 crore."

AGVB will also hire 300 new staff during the ongoing financial year, in both officer and non-officer categories. The bank current staff strength is 1,914.

Regarding loans, Singh said, "In last one year, our advanced loan outflow has gone up from Rs 2,429 crore to Rs 2,860 crore."