The Andhra Bank General Manager V.B. Bhagawathi foresees exciting growth opportunities in the banking sector in the residuary Andhra Pradesh. In an interaction with the bank customers and media here on Tuesday, he said a lot of development, which was in store for Andhra Pradesh during post-bifurcation period, was all set to help the banking sector witness a buoyancy in business opportunities, especially in the retail trade and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) segments.
Mr. Bhawathi visualised a deep penetration by banks in both the urban and the rural business segments in the residuary State. Of the total 1,200-odd brick and mortar branches under operation in the erstwhile united State, more than 800 branches were in the Seemandhra region alone. Even as the Andhra Bank was proposed to launch 400 new branches in the country during the financial year, the residuary State would get a good number of them, he said.
ATMs on double-decker trainsThe General Manager said the bank was planning to launch Automated Telling Machine (ATM) operations on board the double-decker trains proposed to be introduced by the railways in the Hyderabad-Guntur and Hyderabad-Tirupati sections shortly. Saying that the APSRTC top brass had also made a similar request for the ATM operations in the running buses, Mr. Bhagawathi said the Andhra Bank was examining the economic viability of the project.
Feedback on ‘e-lounge’Mr. Bhawathi received feedback from the customers on the functioning of the `e-lounge’ facility provided at the main branch of the Andhra Bank at Ramachandraraopet in the city. Machines for deposit of cash, cheques, coin vending and a kiosk for Internet banking were installed on the bank premises under the e-lounge project. D. Nagaraja Naidu, Deputy General Manager, Andhra Bank, said an officer, trained in electronic banking transactions, was posted exclusively to guide the customers in making use of the e-lounge facility. A similar facility was recently launched at Jangareddygudem in the district, Mr. Naidu added. The DGM said the cash deposit machine has an inbuilt facility to identify and reject the transaction of fake currency notes.
