UCO Bank recovers 79% of wrongly credited amount after IMPS glitch

UCO Bank on Thursday said that it has initiated requisite actions to recover the remaining Rs 171 crore

Public-sector lender UCO Bank announced on Thursday that it has retained and recovered 79 per cent of the amount wrongly credited to the bank after its Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) was hit by a technical snag from November 10 to November 13, 2023.

In a BSE filing, the bank said, "We further inform that by taking various proactive steps, Bank blocked the recipients' accounts and has been able to retain and recover around Rs 649 crore out of Rs 820 crore which is about 79 per cent of the amount."

The filing added that the bank had initiated the necessary actions to recover the remaining Rs 171 crore. "The matter has also been reported to the law enforcement agencies for necessary action," it read.

On November 15, UCO Bank announced that due to a technical glitch, certain transactions of customers of other banks were credited to UCO Bank, leaving the account holders without actual receipt of money from these banking entities.

As a precautionary measure, the bank took its IMPS channel offline.

Also Read: Bajaj Fin falls 4% as RBI bars lending under eCOM, Insta EMI Card schemes

"The bank re-iterates and assures that all other critical systems are operational and available. The bank continues to provide safe and secure services to customers," it said.

As of 10:20 am on Thursday, UCO Bank's shares were trading 1.03 per cent in the red at 39.42 apiece on BSE.

Earlier, the bank announced that its net profit for the quarter ended September (Q2FY24) declined 20.4 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to Rs 402 crore on a decrease in non-interest income and a rise in operating expenses. Sequentially, the Kolkata-based public-sector lender's profit went up 79.7 per cent in Q2, from Rs 223 crore in the quarter ended June (Q1FY24).

Its net interest income expanded 8.3 per cent to Rs 1,917 crore in Q2, compared to Rs 1,770 crore in the same quarter a year ago. Sequentially, NII declined 4.6 per cent from Rs 2,009 crore reported in Q1FY24.

Also Read: NPCI explores methods to increase RuPay on UPI payment adoption by vendors

The bank's domestic net interest margin (NIM) expanded to 3.05 per cent in Q2FY24, compared to 2.97 per cent in Q2FY23. Sequentially, NIM inched up from 3.03 per cent in Q1FY24, according to an analyst presentation.