Union Bank to ramp up SME funding

Union Bank of India plans to lend to the small and medium enterprises (SME) segment in a big way to increase its share in total loans portfolio to 20 per cent by 2010 from 12.5 now.

Similarly, the Mumbai-based bank plans to increase the share of its retail portfolio to 25 per cent from the current 21 per cent.

The other area the bank wants to focus on is agricultural lending. It wants farm lending to be 20 per cent of the total portfolio by 2010 from 16 per cent now, M V Nair, chairman and managing director, said on the sidelines of Banking Conclave 2006 organised by FICCI's eastern regional council.

For the corporate sector, the bank would focus on offering value-added service. "We have entered into an arrangement with Reuters to offer special service to our corporate clients dealing with foreign exchange. We will be offering them foreign currency after evaluating their parameters," he explained.

The bank has set a total business target of Rs 1,60,000 crore in 2006-07 from last year's Rs 1,28,000 crore. "Our total business at the end of the first quarter will be Rs 1,32,000 crore. The bank has set a target of reaching total business of Rs 1,60,000 crore by the year-end," he added.