United Bank restructuring accounts

United Bank of India (UBI) has restructured 15000 accounts, with outstanding amount of Rs 1,600 crore in the last three-four months.

Under the restructuring exercise, the bank has so far restructured 4,500 loan accounts of micro enterprises, with an outstanding Rs 103 crore, and about 284 accounts by small and medium enterprises , with an outstanding of Rs 108 crore.

The bank’s total SME portfolio at present is Rs 3,100 crore.. This fiscal, the bank expected a 22 per cent, year-on-year growth in advances and 10 per cent increases in deposits, said S C Gupta, chairman and managing director of UBI.

"At the state level bankers committee (SLBC), we are in touch with various micro small and medium enterprise (MSME) associations, for collecting their feedback. Based on that we will decide future course of action to support to the sector," said Gupta.

For SMEs' bank's lending rate is generally about one per cent below prime lending rate, he said.

UBI's board has also approved of a capital restructuring plan, under which its paid-up capital will come down from Rs 1,532 crore at present to about Rs 226 crore.

The bank hopes to bring down the NPA level by half a per cent by March 2009.

Recently the bank had also started a helpline for SMEs and MSMEs for loan requirement.

Gupta said, in the present quarter, the credit off take had been better than what it was last quarter, and the quarterly growth could be around 18 per cent.