UCO Bank opens 4 special rupee vostro accounts, gets RBI nod for 8 more

State-owned UCO Bank has opened four special rupee vostro accounts with Russian banks. The bank has also received permission from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for opening eight more accounts.

Ashwani Kumar, managing director and chief executive officer, UCO Bank, said that four Special Rupee Vostro Account (SRVA) accounts have already been opened with Russian banks. “We have got permission for eight accounts for which account opening formalities are on. Out of these eight, six are from Russia and two from Belarus.”

“In addition, four more banks have approached us to open SRVA accounts. After completing their formalities, we will be approaching RBI seeking approval,” he added. Of these two were from Russia and two from other countries.  

Kumar, however, said that the transactions were not very big. The accounts have been opened recently, he said, adding that with awareness, the transactions will pick up.  

UCO bank on Friday announced its results for the first quarter. The bank reported net profit of Rs 223.48 crore in Q1FY24, up 80.80 per cent year-on-year. Net profit in Q1FY23 had stood at Rs 123.61 crore.

Explaining the rise in profitability, Kumar said, in the same quarter of last, the bank had mark-to-market losses (MTM) and provision had to be made. No such provision was required this time.

Net Interest Income (NII) increased by 21.78 per cent to Rs 2,008.80 crore in Q1FY24 as against Rs 1,649.54 crore for Q1FY23.

The bank’s total business grew by 16.06 per cent YoY to Rs 4,13,972 crore.

On the asset quality side, gross non-performing assets (NPA) of the bank improved to 4.48 per cent from 7.42 per cent in the June quarter of previous fiscal. Net NPA improved to 1.18 per cent from 2.49 per cent in the same quarter last year.