March of Technology
The Andhra Pragathi Grameena Bank reaches out to its customers
through its 552 branches and 108 ATMs including 2 mobile ATMs:
T
he Andhra Pragathi Grameena
Bank has implemented a number of
technology initiatives during 2018-
19, including deployment of PoS terminals
at merchant establishments, facility to
issue instant PINs and cards, eKYC for
instant customer onboarding, opening of
recurring deposit accounts at customers’
doorsteps as part of financial inclusion.
It has also implemented eTHIC (online
inspection software), DBT H2H (host to
host) automation of debit transactions and
offsite monitoring and upgraded its internet
banking for retail/corporate users and SHG
dual authentication for allowing credits
to SHG OD accounts through business
correspondents (BCs).
The bank several plans for 2019-20.
These include an online HRMS, Bill Desk
internet payment gateway integration,
insta pay and recharge/utility bill payments
module in internet banking and mobile
banking, popularization of PoS terminals,
automation of all feasible routine activities
across the bank branches, fraud monitoring
system, crop insurance module, Aadhaar
vault and tokenization.
A. Venkata Reddy, chairman, reveals
that the bank is also planning to upgrade
the bandwidth at all the branches with
leased line connectivity to accommodate
all the new IT applications including
centralized server for CBS, new java-based
CBS version, HRMS, eTHIC and in-house
portals thereby saving time, which can be
used for business growth.IT INFRA UPGRADE
As far as IT infrastructure is concerned, the
bank had replaced the entire hardware at
its data center in in the last FY with updated
state-of-art hardware thereby enhancing
the processing power and storage capacity.
One 48U rack server has been installed at
the heads office, hosting various in-house
portals and online inspection application
(eTHIC). Database has been upgraded to
the latest version at the CDC.
Says Reddy: “We have plans to have an
SFTP setup in the current financial year,
which allows the branches to access the
MIS reports instead of pushing the same
to the local servers thereby reducing the
network traffic. We will deploy micro-ATMs
at the branches for green channel cash
withdrawals; upgrade the operating systems
at the branches from Windows 7 to Windows
10 as well as active directory setup. All our
ATMs will have terminal security solutions
and we intend to replace all the magstripe
cards with EMV-chip-based cards.”
The bank is also planning to introduce
green PINs, which can be generated at
the ATMs, a grievance redressal system
through WhatsApp and Aadhaar Pay at
merchant establishments.IT TEAM, ATM, DC
HPE, Acer, Lenovo, Dell and HCL
Technologies are the major IT vendors of
the bank. Its CBS is from C-Edge (BaNCS-
link). It has implemented AML, eKYC, MIS
and data de-duplication solutions and has a
tie-up with HDFC Bank for CTS. It added
18 ATMs last year and is planning to add 8
more ATMs this year.
Says Reddy: “We have a 31-member
team for application development and
14-member team for IT infrastructure. Our
data center is located Mumbai, which can
handle 200 transactions per second. Our
ATMs are of Diebold brand and on average
4900 transactions take place on our ATMs
per day.” The bank has both personalized
and instant cards as per the customer’s
choice. CCTV cameras are installed at all
ATMs which run 24x7.CAPEX, OPEX, IT TRAINING
The bank’s IT application team has
undergone training at IDRBT and BIRD on
secure web development, VAPT, IT vendor
management, application programming
interface, mobile application development,
payment systems and card management,
fraud risk management and preventing
cybercrime and cyber frauds.
Says Reddy: “Our capex to opex ratio is
0.86 for IT budgets. We hosted an in-house
portal ‘AddServ’ which currently hosts
the application for instant cards, instant
PINs, online tour dairy submission for
officers, tracking the hardware movements
between various branches and fraud
monitoring software. The training which
the team underwent paved the way for a
wonderful in-house application thereby
mitigating the paperwork and seamless
flow of information besides saving a lot
of time.”
The bank has received IBA awards for
using banking technology for best financial
inclusion initiatives and ‘Best Banking
Service Award’ on the eve of National
Panchayat Raj Day.
[email protected]A Venkata ReddyAPGB: Giant steps towards technology transformation