Union Bank hopes to achieve Rs 90,000 crore deposits

Chennai, Apr 23 (UNI) The public sector Union Bank of India has set itself a business target of Rs 1,60,000 crore for the current financial year, according to Chairman and Managing Director M V Nair.

He told newsmen here that of the total business for 2006-07, the bank had set a goal of achieving Rs 90,000 crore as deposits and Rs 70,000 crore as advances.

He said the bank recently received an approval from the RBI to open its branches at Hong Kong and Doha in Qatar, in addition to its earlier approval for its representative offices in Shangai and Dubai.

He said tha bank had set up 101 village knowledge centres to disseminate information to farmers on weather, price of inputs and agricultural produce, improved cultivation and employment opportunities for rural youth.

To a question, he said they are planning to take this number upto 201 this year. In Tamil Nadu seven such centres have been set up and before the end of this year it might go up to 15. The bank had identified four sectors as growth areas for the bank namely retail, SMEs, agriculture and corporate.

The bank which has 32 retail marts, plans to increase the number to 100 this year.

He said it is proposed to introduce "five years plus" fixed deposits, no-frills account for rural markets and credit cards.

They have 483 ATMs at present and it was decided to increase the number to 1000 this year.

The number of customers was also expected to go up by three million from 15 million, he added.

He said over 34,000 "Union White Cards" launched by the bank to generate self-employment through milk production, had been issued involving Rs 112 crore by way of finance. In Tamil Nadu the bank had issued 6,176 cards during the year.

Replying to an another question, he said the total business of the bank crossed Rs 1,25,000 crore on March 31,2006.

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