The Visakhapatnam Cooperative Bank has crossed the Rs.1,000-crore mark in deposits.
Announcing this at a media conference here on Sunday, chairman of the bank Manam Anjaneyulu said VCB was the biggest cooperative bank in the entire South India in the category of scheduled and non-scheduled cooperative urban banks.
“Barring in Gujarat and Maharashtra, there is no other bank bigger than us in the country,” he said.
Impressive record
The bank, which was established in the year 1916, had crossed the Rs.100-crore mark in deposits in 1998-99, Rs.500-crore mark in 2009-10, Rs.900-crore mark in 2010-11, and the Rs.1,000-crore mark on June 28 this year. It has an ambitious plan to reach the 30 mark in the number of branches and achieve a business mix of Rs. 3,000 crore before the end of the centenary year of the bank in 2016. The turnover of the bank as on July 1 this year was Rs.1,785 crore with Rs.1,014 crore deposits and Rs.771 crore advances, he said.
The bank's area of operation, with a network of 20 branches, is spread over five districts in the State – Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, Srikakulam, East Godavari, Ranga Reddy, and Prakasam.
“We have concrete plans to make inroads into more districts. In the process, we are shortly opening a branch at Tirupati in Chittoor district by merging the Balaji Urban Coop Bank, Tirupati, with our bank. We want to add another six branches during the current financial year,” Mr. Anjaneyulu said.
He also revealed that VCB was granted AD-II category licence by the Reserve Bank of India, and by virtue of it the bank could conduct foreign exchange transactions.
On the success of the bank, he said the bank was striving to provide financial help to lakhs of needy people from all walks of life and won their confidence.
Replying to questions, he said wherever cooperative banks failed, the cause was noticed as misuse of funds by the management. Also, if there was no undue interference by the State government, the cooperative sector could do well, he felt.
