)
Andhra Bank is hoping to increase the customer base as well as retail business through its Nextgen branches that feature automation of majority of routine transactions and personal bankers.
“We have been receiving positive feedback from these branches. The lead time for sanctioning a consumer loan has been reduced to two days from 8-10 days earlier at the Nextgen branches,” SK Kalra, executive director of Andhra Bank, said on Wednesday.
The number of savings and current accounts remained almost stagnant in the recent past but now was growing wherever the existing branches were converted into modern units under its business transformation initiative launched in March last year, according to him. However, he said it was too early to assess the cost benefit coming out of these branches.
Andhra Bank launched its 90th Nextgen branch marking the 90th anniversary of the bank today and expects to transform at least 250 existing branches under this initiative. It has a network of over 1,400 branches across the country.
These new set of branches will have round-the-clock banking centre equipped with frontline automation machines such as ATM, self service pass book printers among other things. It has also assigned new roles to the existing staff as branch floor manager and personal bankers.
K K Misra, also executive director, said the bank was more inclined to push retail and SME lending apart from agriculture credit as it had reduced its corporate debt portfolio to 51 per cent from 57 per cent owing to the problems arising out of the economic slowdown.
The bank, which is yet to get a new chairman, posted a 78 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 70 crore in Q2 ending September, 2013 due to higher provisioning and decline in treasury and retail income.
"It was the worst quarter. We will be back on track in the next couple of quarters as we anticipate a reversal of trend in treasury income apart from better recoveries," Kalra said on the sidelines of the launch of Nextgen branch.
