Daijiworld Media Network – Bangalore (NR)

Bangalore, Oct 18: A new Field General Manager’s Office (FGMO), was unveiled by the Union Bank of India (UBI) one of the country’s leading public sector banks, on Wednesday, October 17 with a view to catering to the needs of  customers which is expanding at a fast pace.

Addressing a news conference, M V Nair, chairman and managing director of the bank said that the rapid growth of economies of states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka has resulted in growing business opportunities as well as banking needs of various segments of customers.

The new FGMO has 5 regional offices at Bangalore, Belgaum in Karnataka and at Hyderabad, Vijayawada and Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

The functions of FGMO and regional offices have been so defined as to make it more customer friendly branch. Technology has enabled the bank to centralize many business processes to be controlled by FGMOs which will function as ‘centres of excellence’, informed Nair.

Giving statistical data, Nair stated that the newly created zone has a business mix of Rs 12,223 crore (deposits- Rs 5,625 crore and advances Rs 6,598 crore) as on September 30, 2007 with a credit deposit ratio of 117.29 per cent. Retail lending comprises nearly 30 per cent of total advances of the zone while agricultural advances account for 25 per cent. Advances to SME sector form 8 per cent of total advances.
 
FGMO Bangalore is planning to open 24 new branches by March 2008 (13 in Andhra Pradesh and 11 in Karnataka), for which licenses have already been obtained from RBI. This expansion will take number of branches in Andhra Pradesh to 153 and in Karnataka to 109, Nair further informed.

Moreover he also said that a regional office will be established at Nellore (Andhra Pradesh) shortly to drive the bank's expansion in the area for facilitating business growth. This will be done by opening new branches in ‘unbanked areas’ as well as where increased economic and business activity is being witnessed, he added.

With the establishment of this FGMO, the business mix of the zone will be in the region of Rs 14,000 crore by the end of March 2008.

With regard to credit growth, Nair replied that the bank which saw a credit growth of 30 per cent in the last two years is looking at a credit growth of 25 per cent this year.
While smes have achieved 35 per cent credit growth, agriculture has been 30 per cent and retail 23-25 per cent.

Nair being optimistic about retail side said ‘there are indications of a pick-up in retail loans’, he declared. With regard to investment on biometric cards for hawkers and rural poor, he said that the biometric cards pilot project has covered 7,000 in Chalia in Uttar Pradesh, 5,900 in Mumbai and 8,000 in Warangal, Andhra Pradesh and even predicted that the bank hoped to break even within two years.