Bank of India is expanding its branch network in coastal Andhra Pradesh substantially during the current financial year and is also setting up a SME loan processing centre here, according to Mr G.L.N Sastry, Zonal Manager.

He told reporters here on Tuesday that ten new branches were opened during the current financial year in the Visakhapatnam zone comprising eight coastal districts from Srikakulam to Prakasam, and the eleventh branch would be opened here on Thursday at Muralinagar. “We have at present 94 branches in the zone and we plan to add 24 branches more during the current financial year including the Muralinagar one later this week. We also have two processing centres - one at Amalapuram in East Godavari district and the other at Guntur. We are setting up a processing centre for SME (small and medium enterprises) loans here later this year,” he said.

Mr Sastry said 25 ATMs would be added in the zone during the current financial year in addition to the existing 26. The volume of business in the zone amounted to Rs 2,300 crore by March, 2011, with deposits being Rs 1,250 crore and the rest advances. “We have an ambitious target of Rs 3,500 crore by the end of the current financial year, and we will achieve it,” he said.

He said mobile banking services would be introduced shortly in the zone. The credit cards introduced for the youth (bingo cards, as they are called in the bank) and also the Star Suraksha savings account were very popular, he said. The bank was also focusing on financial inclusion.

He said the rural and semi-urban branches were performing well in the State. On the question of giving loans to tenant farmers in the State in the wake of an ordinance passed by the State Government, he said no guidelines had yet been received on the issue and it would be taken up later.

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