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Andhra Bank, which is a household name among Telugus, will be consigned to history books from Wednesday.
The bank, set up by eminent freedom fighter and Gandhian Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya in 1923, will be amalgamated with Union Bank of India along with Corporation Bank from April 1. “The amalgamation makes Andhra Bank stronger in view of the fact that it has the leading market share in Andhra and Telagnana; the combined entity will reap benefits from geo-spatial advantages,” J Packirisamy, Managing Director, told BusinessLine here on Tuesday.
There will not be much overlap as far as business and branch spread is concerned for the three entities as Andhra, Telganana, Karnataka and Mumbai are geographies for Andhra Bank, Corporation Bank and Union Bank of India, the MD said.
Zero trouble
The process of merger is being governed by the theme of ‘zero trouble’ and will be smooth. “The way the new sign boards are designed will also give familiarity to customers as the names of both Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank are also being inserted below Union Bank of India in small letters for some days to help customers,” said Packirisamy.
Except top-level executives, there will be no immediate transfers and customers will continue to see the same faces, he said.
The bank is “fully geared” for the amalgamation process. About 30 internal teams, covering various functional aspects, were formed to ensure the harmonisation of products and processes in the amalgamated entity.
“We are ready to deploy the harmonised services in the amalgamated entity to ensure that our customers continue to receive seamless service. Besides, we have also focussed on employee engagement to ensure last-mile delivery without disruptions,” the official said.
However, there are technical issues. Andhra Bank is on Finacle 7, which will be migrated to Finacle 10, presently used at Union Bank of India. This may take a few months but customers will not be impacted by it.
On the contribution of the Andhra Bank so far, the MD said besides building up a strong retail and agricultural lending portfolio, it also supported the growth of MSMEs and industrial sectors.
“The bank has been the frontrunner in taking up technology-driven solutions to effectively deliver customer service, and has driven digital adoption amongour customers,” he said. Interestingly, Andhra Bank was the frist in the country to introduce credit cards.
With a business of ₹3.96-lakh crore, the bank has been able to grow over the industry growth rate. The market share of the bank has been at about 2 per cent on a pan-India basis and close to 15 to 20 per cent in AP and TS.
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