UCO Bank to open 82 new branches by March

State-run UCO Bank has got an approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for setting up 82 new branches across the country by the end of the current financial year.

“These branches will be in addition to the 2,078 branches which UCO Bank has at present,” Chairman and Managing Director SK Goel said here at a customers’ meet today. The bank has also drawn up a plan to renovate around 400 branches.

“We are going for a makeover of our branches in rural areas. The bank aims to offer an ambience which will make our rural customers feel at home,” said Goel.

He also dwelt upon financial inclusion in Himachal Pradesh and Orissa, where UCO Bank has the lead bank responsibility. The bank has achieved 100 per cent financial inclusion in Himachal Pradesh, claimed Goel.

He pointed out the RBI had roped in an independent agency to check the veracity of the claims made by UCO on the state of financial inclusion in Himachal Pradesh.

In Orissa, the bank has achieved 100 per cent financial inclusion in 13 districts, Goel claimed.

, adding, “We are aiming to make Orissa the second state in the country to achieve 100 per cent financial inclusion and we want this to happen as soon as possible.”

According to the agency’s findings, Himachal Pradesh has 99.4 per cent financial inclusion and the people left out are the migrants who would stay in the state for a short duration, he added.