UCO Bank poised to earn Net Profits from this fiscal
Kolkata, 4 January (HS) :Kolkata headquartered public sector UCO Bank which is determined to earn considerable Net profits at the end of the current financial year (2019-20) in March after remaining in red for the past several years,is launching a unique 45 day long ‘UCO Carnival’ on its 78th Foundation day next week to extend Retail, MSME and Agricultural credits to the tune of Rs 4,000 crores to its customers.
Announcing this during an interaction here on the eve of the Bank’s Foundation day celebrations this evening UCO Bank Managing Director and CEO A. K. Goel and two Executive Directors Charan Singh and Ajay Vyas said in view of the all round growth of the banking activities this year,they had targeted to disburse retail and other credits worth at least Rs 500 crores on the opening day of the Carnival on 6 January.
Asked about the main focus of the Carnival,being held for the first time across the country, Goel said apart from disbursing Rs 2700 crore worth of Retail credits in the forms of Housing, Car and Gold loans with attractive interest rates,loans to the MSME sectors worth Rs 1300 crores and Agricultural sectors would also be disbursed at the branch level of the bank throughout the country during the next 45 days.This would be done in addition to the year long programmes of the bank to disburse credits worth more than Rs several thousand crores, he said.
Elaborating all round success of the bank which would not be merged with any other public sector bank later this year,as decided in terms of the United Bank of India (UBI) and Allahabad Bank in the city, Goel said in order to achieve the target of becoming a Net Profit making bank at the end of the current fiscal the bank employees had left no stone unturned to neutralise the credit books of all four major defaulters in the private sector by recovering nearly Rs 900 crores from them during this year.
In addition some more cash recoveries were made from other long time defaulters,he said and claimed that all these had gone a long way towards drastically reducing both Gross and Net NPA(Non Performing Assest) margins of the bank so far.
Citing examples UCO Bank MD said by September 2019 the Gross NPA of the bank had come down to 21.01 per cent from 25.07 per cent about a year ago. Similarly the Net NPA margin had also been reduced from 11.97 per cent to 07.32 per cent during the same period, Goel said and claimed that by March this year it would be reduced further to less than 6 per cent.
Till September 2019 the total deposit of the UCO Bank stood at Rs 1.89 lakh crores and the Advance at Rs 1.70 lakh crores with the total business standing at Rs 300,000 crores, Goel said replying to a query.
In order to re-enter into the Net Profit regime by March next, we are determined to leaver no stone unturned in the coming months targeting a double digit growth of the business of the bank, the Managing Director reiterated with confidence.Currently the bank had more than 3200 branches across India in addition to two overseas branches in Hong Kong and Singapore and a Representative office in Tehran. The Bank also plans to introduce co branded Credit Cards in association with SBI soon.
