Public sector, Andhra Bank plans to cross its total business volume of Rs 1,00,000 crore by the end of the current fiscal and thereby enter in the mid-size category of banks.

Director of Andhra Bank, T Ravindranath said, "Our aim is to enter the mid-size category of banks by the end of this fiscal and the big size category by March 2010 through aggressive expansion of business."

As per RBI guidelines, banks with a total business volume of less than Rs 1,00,000 crore fall under the category of small size banks and those with a business volume of over Rs 1,00,000 crore are categorized as mid-sized banks.

During the first nine months of the fiscal, the bank has made a growth of around 28% in its total business. "The total business of Andhra Bank grew by 27.38 percent during April-December of this fiscal to reach Rs 95,822 crore as against Rs 75,225 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. The bank's total business currently stands at about Rs 97,000 crore", informed the director.

The operation profit of the period increased by 29.22% while the net profit swelled by 33.74%.

The bank mainly extended its advances to priority sectors and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). In December 2008, loans to priority sector stood at 14,200 crore where as advances to nearly 2,03, 500 Self Help Groups (SHGs) spread across the nation also stood at Rs 14,200 crore.

Besides, the bank also plans to increase its presence in the country. It aims to set up 150 more branches by the end of the first quarter of the next fiscal. At the same time it will also bring all its existing 1440 branches under the Core Banking Solutions (CBS) by the end of the current fiscal.

Ravindranath said, "Around 1,200 branches of Andhra Bank have already been brought under the CBS platform and the remaining branches would be brought under CBS by the end of March this year."

Recently Andhra Bank has tied up with Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) and Bank of Baroda (BOB) to venture into Malaysia.