Union Bank of India is serious over rise in its NPA level

Mumbai, Oct 18 (UNI) Worried over the rise in its NPA (Non Performing Assets) during the first half of the current financial year, the Union Bank of India has chalked out an aggressive plan for the fast recovery of NPAs.

Talking to media on the sidelines of announcement of the bank's performance during the first half ended September 30, the bank CMD, M V Nair, said that ''We have recruited 90 recovery agents all across the country to ensure the fast recovery of NPAs''.

Though the total business of the bank grew by Rs 23801 crore from Rs 116171 crore to Rs 139972 crore between September last year to Rs 2016 crore during last month, its NPA level increased from Rs 2004 crore to Rs 2016 crore during the period.

Accepting the fact that the real status of NPA was not being registered by all the branches of his bank in time, Mr Nair said that now we have asked all the branch managers to report us about it well in time. In fact the banki has brought a system of monitoring the collection of NPA and collecting information about it from each of its branches.

As a result the bank has already recovered NPA to the tune of Rs 35 crore during the first half as compared to the figure of Rs 30 crore during the same period in previous year. This year, we are targeting to collect NPAs amonting to Rs 100 crore by the end of the current fiscal, said Mr Nair.

Executive Director of the bank, R S Reddy, said that ''We don't want to appoint Assets Recovery Company (ARC) for the recovery of NPAs for a simple reason that they charge 20 per cent of the value of the recovery. It is a big amount for us as we feel that we can do it by spending merely 12 per cent of the value in case we do it by our own, he said.

Hoping that retail credit will go in a big way during the latter half, Mr Nair informed that the repayment of short term loans to the tune of Rs 1900 crore was expected by the month-end.

Commenting on the results of first half, Mr Nair said, ''Results have been quite impressive despite mounting pressure on margins''.

Talking about his future plans, Mr Nair said that we will restrict credit growth to 25 per cent. The idea is come out with low yield advantages.

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