Andhra Bank is planning to start a gold retailing business and has therefore approached the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to obtain necessary clearances for the venture.

Anil Girotra, Executive Director of the Andhra Bank said, "We are awaiting approval from the apex bank and once it is in place the bank will start selling gold coins through select branches. Simultaneously, we have initiated talks with a couple of international companies who can supply gold. We will proceed further only after obtaining the RBI approval."

The bank is migrating to ‘Centralized Core Banking Solution' and 300 of its branches have already been migrated to CBS. It is proposed to cover 679 branches by December 2008 and by early next year the bank plans to cover all its 1,386 branches under the CBS platform. This will benefit customers, who will have access to banking and financial services anytime, anywhere through multiple delivery channels.

Leveraging on this technological transformation, the bank is also planning to get into online trading. In fact it has approached few broking firms to offer the service to its customers. "We hope to extend the services by the end of this calendar year," said Girotra.

Last year bank's fee based income was noted to be Rs 84.76 crore and for this year the target is around Rs 150 crore. "Last year, as commission from sale of mutual funds alone the bank earned an income of Rs 1.1 crore. We have distribution arrangements with seven Asset Management Companies and our idea is to add 3-4 more mutual fund companies to the list. Talks are on with LIC MF, Fidelity and Birla Sunlife for distributing their mutual fund products", said Girotra.

Andhra bank commenced business on 28th November 1923 with a paid up capital of Rs 1 lakh and an authorised capital of Rs 10 lakh. Its net profit for the quarter ending on June 30, 2008 stood at Rs 7762 lakh. The bank has committed to create a customer centric organization with a deep sense of social responsibility and to continuously leverage technology to attain world class standards of performance.