Cooperative
Aims to increase customer base to 600,000 in the next 3 years:
C
onsequent on the reorganization
of the state of Andhra Pradesh
and formation of Telangana, the
erstwhile Andhra Pradesh State Cooperative
Bank was bifurcated into the Telangana
State Cooperative Apex Bank (TSCAB)
and the Andhra Pradesh State Cooperative
Bank (APSCB). At present, TSCAB
operates through 42 business outlets,
basically serving the cosmopolitan twin
cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. In
addition, there are 347 branches of DCCBs
and799 branches of PACS coming under
its purview. The bank added 4 branches
in Saroornagar, Meerpet, Badangpet and
Manurabad recently. It has 42 ATMs –
36 onsite and the rest offsite essentially at
station of the Hyderabad Metro – to provide
convenience to its customers. The bank’s
customer base stands at around 500,000.ADDING 100,000 CUSTOMERS
Dr Nethi Muralidhar, MD of the bank,
says the bank is now offering services to
its customers on par with those offered by
commercial banks. It has set up financial
literacy centers for the benefit of its
customers as well as those of the DCCBs and
PACS in collaboration with the NABARD.
The intention is to bring in the untapped
potential customers to the banking fold
and to educate them about the benefits
of having a financial relationship with the
banks and usage of eChannels, he adds.
“We are also targeting to increase the
customer base to 600,000 in the next 3
financial years. Some of the salient features
of our operations are that we offer attractive
interest rates for deposit0rs, timely service
to the customers, less processing time
for gold loans and retail loans and locker
facility,” says Muralidhar.
One of the steps it has taken recently is
to set up digital signage boards in branches
to create awareness among the customers
about various products/services offeredby the bank. These boards also spread the
message about measures that customers to
prevent on-line/off-line frauds.
The bank has ensured that all the new
recruits are tech-savvy so that they can
handle the work using modern technology
and also sensitize customers on the services
offered based on technology.DEPOSITS DOWNTURN
The bank collected `36.22 billion in
deposits in 2018-19. It registered a negative
growth of 5.94% in deposits compared
to 2017-18. “We have been striving to
scale up the position of CASA deposits by
tapping the salaried people, merchants
and businessmen for opening savings bank
and current accounts to meet industry
standards. Our CASA is 18.68% as of 2018-
19,” says Muralidhar.LOANS, REFINANCE UP
Loans extended to DCCBs for short-term
seasonal agriculture operations form the
lion’s share of the total loans provided by
the bank, followed by long-term loans to
the agricultural sector. Refinance from
NABARD has been consistent over the
years. Says Muralidhar: We have extended
loans amounting `55.96 billion in 2018-19,
which is up by `4 billion over the previous
year. The total amount of loans extended
to cooperative federations stood at `5.37
billion. We have received refinance from
NABARD to the extent of `35.02 billion.
We have been able to show consistent
progress on the loans front.”
The bank’s gross NPA has reduced to
`121.4 million (0.22%) in in 2018-19 from
`124.9 million (0.24%) a year ago. The
net NPA has remained at zero for many
years. Muralidhar claims that the bank has
been able to make significant progress in
bringing down the NPA to a minimum level
even though NPA in the entire banking
system has shown alarming growth.NEW IT FEATURES
The bank has a strong IT infrastructure
using which it is offering services like
mobile banking and IMPS, internet
banking with view option UPI and NEFT/
RTGS. The bank introduced IMPS in
2017 and UPI in 2018. Its income through
various eChannles in 2018-19 has been Rs11
million during 2018-19, says Muralidhar.
The bank is yet to employ data analytics
tools to forecast transaction patterns in
various services offered by it. “At present,
we are not using any sophisticated data
science tools to forecast transaction
patterns. However, we have introduced a
similar methodology for forecasting the
number of transactions routed through
our ATMs. This analysis is helping us
to manage cash in the ATMs efficiently,”
says Muralidhar.Nethi Muralidhar claims the
computer literacy among the
TSCAB staff members is on
par with the current needs of
the banking industryTSCAB to embrace a variety of
new tech services