• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

C.R. Sukumar

The entire exercise of technology upgradation at all the branches spread across the country and networking of branches and ATMs is expected to result in the bank finding nearly a couple of hundred staff surplus.

HYDERABAD, March 14

THE large-scale technology initiatives currently being taken up by Andhra Bank were compelling the bank to go in for a right-sizing exercise for its human resources once again.

The initiatives such as leveraging information technology for better customer service, reduced cost and ability to handle higher volumes were being accorded top priority by the bank. Andhra Bank has already surpassed the prescribed levels of computerisation by the Central Vigilance Commission.

The bank has acquired 30 VSATs as a part of Indian Financial Network (INFINET), of which 29 VSATs were already commissioned as at the end of last fiscal. The bank, which is currently in the process of networking at least 100 of its branches before the end of current fiscal, plans to network almost all its 1,089 branches spread across the country, except around half-a-dozen branches located in the remotest villages. The bank has also drawn up aggressive plans for setting up of on-site and off-site ATMs and networking them.

The entire exercise of technology upgradation at all the branches spread across the country and networking of branches and ATMs is expected to result in the bank finding nearly a couple of hundred staff surplus.

"The options before the bank include announcing a fresh voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) and redeploying the surplus staff into more productive business areas such as retail marketing of banking products and other fee-based income products of various mutual funds and insurance companies taken up of late by the bank," its Chairman and Managing Director, Mr B. Vasanthan, told Business Line.

Andhra Bank, which had introduced its VRS during 2000-01 for reducing the workforce, has 12,812 regular staff members as at the end of March 2002, consisting of 6,483 officers, 4,108 members of clerical cadre and 2,221 subordinate staff members.

However, he said a high-level internal group of the bank was currently busy to zero in on the exact number of surplus staff. "We expect the group to submit its report on surplus human resources by May 31. This would also make our job easy since the general transfers process would also begin sometime around May," Mr Vasanthan said.

Stating that the right sizing was a continuous process in Andhra Bank, he said some of the surplus employees might be redeployed as client relationship officers. On the targets for the current fiscal year, Mr Vasanthan said the bank expects to reach Rs 21,000-crore of deposits and Rs 12,000-crore of advances. Of this, the bank has already crossed Rs 19,800-crore of deposits and Rs 11,000-crore of advances.

As against payments and provisions of Rs 338.78 crore for employees during 2000-01, the bank incurred an expenditure of Rs 311.83 crore during the last fiscal. Following the VRS, the average per employee business of the bank improved to Rs 1.96 crore during last fiscal as against Rs 1.54 crore in the previous fiscal. As per the latest balance sheet, a sum of Rs 39.47 crore towards deferred expenditure for VRS was written off including arrears of Rs 4.11 crore for the previous year. The balance amount of Rs 106.09 crore of VRS expenses would be written off over a period of next three years.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication

Stories in this Section
Turnover, buyer-wise policies soon from ECGC

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line