Hyderabad-based Andhra Bank has received Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) approval for its proposed insurance foray, said R S Reddy, chairman and managing director of the bank.
The bank will enter the insurance sector to offer life insurance products in partnership with UK-based Legal & General and Bank of Baroda. “The first-level approval has been accorded to us by the Irda and we are going ahead with the plans,” Reddy said.
Addressing the media after inaugurating the renovated zonal office, he said the bank has put in top gear its plans to ramp up branch network and ATM operations across south India and in major metro cities. Accordingly, the bank will open 121 branches in one year’s time and scale up the number of ATMs. Besides, the bank will be recruiting 800 people this fiscal to strengthen its operations.
Emphasising on the need to take banking acitivites to rural and SME industry sectors, he said out of bank’s total loan portfolio, SME sector alone enjoys 30% year-over-year and it has also focussed on retail lending. The bank had set a target of 40,000 in account-opening in a week and had fulfilled the target in June.
Analysing the banking scenario in the backdrop of the slowdown, he said net income margins of the major banks are going to be impacted in the first quarter as the cost of deposits have not come down to the required levels.