AP Grameena Bank
The Andhra Pragathi Grameena Bank reaches out to its customers through its 552 branches and 108 ATMs including 2 mobile ATMs:
The Andhra Pragathi Grameena Bank has implemented a number of technology initiatives during 201819, 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 (BaNCSlink). 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.