Public sector lender UCO Bank has said it is eyeing a two-fold growth in total business to Rs 6 lakh crore by FY’16 through customer acquisition and network expansion.

The bank’s total business stood at Rs 2.45 lakh crore as on March 31, 2011, and it wants to take this to Rs 3.5 lakh crore by March 2013, and Rs 6 lakh crore by March 2016, field General Manager, Mr R.K. Agrawal, said here today.

The Kolkata-based bank is also looking to raise the number of its branches to 4,000 by March 2016 from 2,239 now and its automated teller machine (ATM) network to 5,000 from the current 681.

Over the next five years, the bank is targeting an increase in the number of account holders to 4.8 crore from 1.4 crore at present.

A thrust will also be on overseas branches, Mr Agrawal said, but refused to give more details. At present, the bank has two branches each in Hong Kong and Singapore and has a representative office in both Malaysia and mainland China.

As part of its drive to raise the low-cost current and savings account (CASA) deposits, the bank has joined its peer IDBI Bank to waive the charges on a slew of transactions like making demand drafts, payment orders, fund transfers, etc.

UCO Bank expects its CASA ratio to move up to 35 per cent from 24 per cent through the special drive, christened ‘Total Freedom’, Mr Agrawal said.

The waiver will be operational for 174 days from July 11 to December 31 this year and the bank aims to open 25 lakh accounts as part of the drive.

State-run IDBI Bank, which was also plagued by a low CASA ratio, had launched a similar scheme last September, following which its CASA ratio moved up.

The CASA ratio of banks like UCO Bank is dwarfed by other public sector banks like State Bank of India, whose CASA deposits are around 50 per cent, which helps in profitability.

Related Topics