Andhra Bank has said that it expects its retail loan book to grow by 45-50% in this financial year. The bank expects this growth on the basis of rising demand in home and gold loan segments.

The fiscal last ended saw the bank book 48% growth in its loan book.

"Overall, there is a pick-up in demand for retail loans. Clearly, consumer confidence has come back and we expect to sustain the growth momentum in the current fiscal as well," Andhra Bank's General Manager, Anjaneya Prasad said.

The bank disbursed loan amounting to Rs. 54,000 crore last fiscal of which Rs 8,900 crore comprised of retail advances. Home loans bore the chunk of Rs. 3,480 crore, education loans 1,647 crore, non-agriculture gold loan Rs 1,382 crore and personal loans Rs 971 crore, Prasad said.

The bank expects that its gold loan segment would experience growth to Rs 3,000 crore as against the current Rs 1,400 crore.

"Despite increasing gold prices, consumers in the country will continue to drive market growth and we want to grab the opportunity," he said.

The bank presently has a branch network of 1,700 pan-India with gold loan facilities available in 1,100 branches.