UCO Bank waives charges to get low-cost deposits

UCO Bank has decided to waive all the charges to attract more customers to the bank and boost its low-cost deposit. Low-cost deposits, or the current and savings account deposits—only 24 per cent of the bank’s total deposits—are lower than those of its peers. The Kolkata-based lender aims to increase its Casa share to 35 per cent by the end of December.

The bank today launched a scheme, 'Total Freedom', which offers services like issuance of cheque books, demand drafts, fund transfers and balance statements to its customers for free. The bank has also raised the minimum balance requirement for customers availing of the scheme. Customers are required to maintain a minimum average balance of Rs 2,500 and Rs 10,000 for savings and current accounts, respectively.

“We aim to bring 2.5 million new customers on board through this scheme and increase our Casa deposits to 35 per cent by December this year,” R K Agrawal, field general manager of UCO bank said.

High-cost deposits, including certificate of deposits, constitute 51 per cent of the bank's total deposits, according to a latest study by Fitch ratings. Besides increasing its customer base, the bank also plans to increase the number of its automated teller machines from 681 to 3,000 by 2013 and 5,000 by 2016.