UCO Bank hopes to reduce NPAs further

State-owned UCO Bank was expecting to reduce NPAs further in the coming quarters from the present levels, CMD of the bank Arun Kaul said.
"The gross NPA of the bank at present was 3.06 per cent. We hope to reduce it further in the coming quarters," Kaul said here today.
He said the bank had suffered due to focus on bulk lending and bulk deposits which led to a situation of legacy NPAs.
"Now, we have shifted the focus to retail, small and medium-sized clients," Kaul added.
He further said the roads sector was a cause for concern as some of the accounts had become non-performing, while land acquisition had become an important hurdle.

Regarding credit growth, he said it should be in the region of 15 to 16 per cent, and the deposit growth would also be aligned in that range.
In the current quarter, Kaul said, the bank had sold NPAs worth Rs 1,500 crore to ARCs, as compared to Rs 322 crore in the third quarter.
From the present level of 2,800 branches, the number would touch 3,000 shortly, he added.