Union Bank to focus on lending to farm, retail sectors

The PSU bank has registered a year-on-year growth of 21% in priority sector advances

With demand for credit from the industrial sector on the wane, public sector lender Union Bank of India said, it will focus on strengthening its loan portfolio under retail, agriculture and MSME (micro, small & medium enterprises) sectors in 2014-15.

"Our focus for this year will be on the RAM (retail, agriculture and MSME) sectors. Most of the large projects are stalled and these projects do not need money now," said Arun Tiwari, chairman and managing director (CMD), Union Bank of India. Tiwari, who had come on an official visit to the state, was talking to the media persons here. The bank CMD, however, hoped the projects cleared by the last Union government to go on stream by Q3 (October-December), reviving demand for industrial credit.

Presently, there are three sectors- retail, agriculture and MSME where growth on advances is consistent, he added. The PSU bank has registered a year-on-year growth of 21 per cent in priority sector advances including 23.52 per cent growth in the agriculture sector and 21.55 per cent growth in MSME advances. The bank has clocked a growth of 27.61 per cent in retail sector advances. The bank's total business stood at Rs 5.32 lakh crore (as on March 31, 2014) with deposits of Rs 2.97 lakh crore and advances worth Rs 2.34 lakh crore.

The PSU bank plans to set up a branch in Sydney (Australia) and an overseas subsidiary at London (UK) to strengthen its global foot print. The bank has representative offices at Shanghai and Beijing in China, Abu Dhabi in UAE and Sydney. Also, it has three overseas branches in HongKong, Dubai and Belgium. In Odisha, Union Bank plans to open 21 new branches during this financial year over and above its network of 104 branches now. The bank's total business in the state (as on March 31, 2014) stood at Rs 14,864.38 crore comprising Rs 7,819.03 crore deposits and total advances of Rs 7,045.35 crore.