UCO Bank
08:23
Showing posts with label UCO Bank. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UCO Bank. Show all posts
Tuesday, 18 July 2017
Saturday, 17 June 2017
UCO Bank
08:03
PSB merger: 7 banks miss August deadline to meet 25% public float norm
PSB merger: 7 banks miss August deadline to meet 25% public float norm
As discussions on the merger of some public-sector banks (PSBs) pick up pace, seven PSBs, especially United Bank of India, could miss the August deadline to meet the 25% public float norm.
As discussions on the merger of some public-sector banks (PSBs) pick up pace, seven PSBs, especially United Bank of India, could miss the August deadline to meet the 25% public float norm. So the finance ministry may request capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India to extend the deadline for the PSBs, sources told FE. As of end-March, the government held more than 75% in seven PSBs — United Bank of India, Indian Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Central Bank of India, Punjab and Sind Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and UCO Bank. If the merger of some of these banks is effected, as is speculated, the government’s shareholdings in the larger entities may change. However, any such merger will take time to be implemented. Given the fact that some of these PSBs are already reeling under toxic assets and also need capital infusion this fiscal, the possibility of the government’s shareholding in them being trimmed to the desired level by August looks bleak.
“We have to see how much the government owns in the larger banking entities after consolidation. So, while efforts will be made to comply with the Sebi norms, at least in some cases the chances of a delay can’t be ruled out. This is because consolidation can be a time-consuming process. In such a case, Sebi may be requested to give some relaxation to these PSBs,” said a senior government official.
According to norms, the government’s stake in public-sector units should not be more than 75% by August 2017.
While discussions are on about the possibilities of merger of some of the PSBs, speculation is rife about United Bank of India and UCO Bank being merged with bigger entities. If implemented, the merger could alter the government’s shareholding pattern in future in some of the PSBs. The government held as much as 85.23% in United Bank and 76.67% in UCO Bank as of end-March. The government has also announced a Rs 10,000-crore capital infusion in some of these PSBs in 2017-18, following which the government’s shareholding in these banks could rise further. Even shareholdings in some of the other banks, which are already close to 75% (in Bank of India, for instance, the government’s shareholding is as high as 73.72%) could breach the ceiling after receiving capital infusion again in the current fiscal.
Apart from a public offer, the government has been contemplating other options, including selling stakes to institutions like Life Insurance Corporation, to bring down its shareholding.
In 2014, the government had notified rules for a minimum 25% public shareholding in listed state-run companies. It was aimed at promoting a wider investor base in listed state-run companies and boosting the government’s plan to raise funds from disinvestment. Prior to this move, listed PSUs were mandated to have at least a 10% public holding, whereas listed non-PSUs were asked in June 2010 to have at least a 25% public shareholding within three years.
Source:Financial Express
Friday, 7 April 2017
Friday, 20 May 2016
UCO Bank
08:09
Government to ask UCO Bank and two other public sector banks to merge with bigger peers
Government to ask UCO Bank and two other public sector banks to merge with bigger peers
After nudging State Bank of India, the country's largest lender, to consider a merger with its five associate banks, the government may now look at combining three other state-run lenders — UCO Bank , Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank — with stronger entities. "There have been some discussions on the merger of these three weak banks with more financially sound lenders.
Various options have been discussed," said a finmin official, who did not wish to be identified. The official clarified that the discussions are in an exploratory stage, reiterating the stand that any consolidation proposal has to come from the banks and that the government will act only as a facilitator. Earlier this month, ET had reported that the government would prod SBI to kick-start the merger process with associate banks. SBI announced on Tuesday its intent to amalgamate them and Bharatiya Mahila Bank.
The merger decision is exploratory at this stage and there is no certainty about the completion of the acquisitions, SBI said in a filing to the stock exchanges. With the merger, SBI will get Rs 5,000 crore of fixed capital from the associate banks and BMB, Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya told ET. According to reports, SBI will have deposits of over Rs 21 lakh crore and advances of Rs 17.5 lakh crore if the mergers are completed.
"All this will also improve our ranking among global banks. Our ranking will go up to 55 from 59 in terms of balance sheet size," Bhattacharya said.
For the merger of UCO Bank, Bank of India and Indian Overseas bank, the government may take the help of the recently constituted Banks Board Bureau (BBB) to overcome concerns over technology platform and human resource issues. "If required, the BBB can interact with the boards of these banks to work out a plan which takes care of all areas of concern," the ministry official said. UCO Bank, based in Kolkata, reported a net loss of Rs 1,715.16 crore in the three months ended March, its second straight lossmaking quarter.
The level of its gross NPAs widened to 15.43% from 6.76% a year earlier. Bank of India reported a loss of Rs 1,506 crore in the quarter ended December, while IOB posted a loss of Rs 1,425 crore in the period, the latest quarter for which they have declared results.
Source:BankingUpdates
Source:BankingUpdates
Wednesday, 30 March 2016
UCO Bank
07:33
Centre to infuse Rs 5K cr in PSB including UCO, Syndicate Bank
Centre to infuse Rs 5K cr in PSB including UCO, Syndicate Bank
The government will soon infuse additional capital of about Rs 5,050 crore in some public sector banks including UCO Bank and Syndicate Bank this week.
Parliament has already approved Rs 5,050 crore for meeting additional expenditure on recapitalisation of public sector banks earlier this month.
The capital infusion by finance ministry in the identified banks would be done soon, which could be as early as this week itself, sources said.
Syndicate Bank and UCO Bank will be issuing shares to the government on a preferential basis to raise a total Rs 1,675 crore subject to regulatory approvals.
UCO Bank said it will raise Rs 935 crore by issuing preferential shares to the government while Syndicate Bank will be raise up to Rs 740 crore through preferential allotment following board approval on March 31.
Besides UCO and Syndicate, other lenders which are contenders for the fresh round of infusion are Central Bank of India, Indian Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Vijaya Bank and United Bank of India.
It will be a part of the Rs 25,000 crore capital infusion plan earmarked for the current fiscal. In the first tranche, as many as 13 public sectors banks were given fund support of Rs 19,950 crore. Of this, State Bank of India got the highest amount of Rs 5,393 crore followed by Bank of India at Rs 2,455 crore.
Besides, the government infused Rs 2,229 crore in IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank Rs 2,009 crore and Punjab National Bank Rs 1,732 crore.
Source:BankingUpdates
Source:BankingUpdates
Thursday, 17 March 2016
UCO Bank
07:59
CASA campaign launched by the Bank from 15.02.2016 till 30.04.2016
CASA campaign launched by the Bank from 15.02.2016 till 30.04.2016
Ref.: Com/EC/ 16 /2015-18
March 14, 2016
All Office Bearers, EC Members & Units
Sub: CASA campaign launched by the Bank from 15.02.2016 till 30.04.2016
We reproduce hereunder the full text of our letter No. Mg/ 28 /2015-18 dated March 14, 2016 addressed to the General Manager, Strategic Planning & GAD on the above subject for information of all concerned.
S Roy Choudhury
General Secretary
Quote
“We are in receipt of your letter no. HO/SP-RL/2015-16/72 dated March 7, 2016 on the above subject along with Bank’s Circular No.CHO/SUA/24/2015-16 dated 12.02.2016 as enclosed with your letter under reference.
We have gone through the contents of your letter as well as Bank’s circular dated 12.02.2016. We are deeply concerned to note that as on date the progress is not as per the targets set for weekly CASA growth inspite of whole-hearted efforts taken by the Bank.
In this connection, you may note that most of the Unions/Associations in the Bank are always genuinely concerned about the well-being of the Bank. In recent past, during the tenure of Shri Arun Kaul, our former CMD, being confronted with the basic issues and observing management reluctance to carry the unions along the path of growth and create an environment of motivation, dedication among the employees, four unions viz. AIBEA, BEFI, INTUC and our Federation consciously decided not to participate in the Apex level Performance Review Meeting on 10th April,2015 which had been called ritually without any concrete future roadmap or projections.
We would like to recall the discussions we had during the deliberations in the Apex Level Performance Review Committee meeting held on 19th January, 2016. In the said meeting, besides many other suggestions, we the unions and associations laid emphasis on the following.
• Sensitizing the work force to the prevalent situation in the Bank, consequent to sharp decline in the current deposits of Iran related accounts and the need for replenishing the gap,
• In order to sensitize the work-force, there can be cluster meetings in different centres so as to use such gatherings effectively both by the field level executives and union functionaries to motivate the people for taking extra-ordinary efforts towards strengthening the CASA deposits,
• To unleash a country vide campaign observing CASA fortnight.
Wednesday, 25 November 2015
UCO Bank
22:12
Increase in non-performing assets have led several public sector banks to go slow on educational loans- Finance Ministry
Increase in non-performing assets have led several public sector banks to go slow on educational loans- Finance Ministry
Student loans dry up as bad debts climb at banks
An increase in non-performing assets have led several public sector banks to go slow on educational loans, latest data complied by the Finance Ministry shows.
“Banks have achieved 50 per cent of the disbursal targets of the year 2015-16 up to 30 September,’’ according to a note circulated among chief executives of the public sector banks before Finance Minister Arun Jaitley met the bankers on Monday. “`However, banks namely the Corporation Bank, Dena Bank, IOB , UCO Bank, SBI, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Hyderabad and the State Bank of Travancore have not achieved proportionate targets,” the note said.
Banks were given a target of 20 per cent growth in disbursement and 15 per cent growth in accounts for the current financial year.
Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan had, earlier this month at the Delhi Economic Conclave, raised a red flag over the increase in non-performing assets in education loans and said such loans should be devised in a flexible manner, providing options like automatic moratorium if borrowers were under a period of unemployment. He wanted guidelines on know-your-customer (KYC) to be made easier.
“There are lots of NPAs in the education sector. They have been rising in the last few years. It's a matter of concern,” Mr. Rajan said.
A student, under the educational loan scheme, can borrow up to Rs.10 lakh for domestic education and Rs.20 lakh for studying in foreign colleges. Borrowers need not pay during the tenure of the course and for an additional year. The repayment period is five to seven years.
For loans up to Rs.4 lakh, banks cannot demand any collateral. According to bankers, the maximum number of bad loans are in this segment.
Due to rising bad loans, the finance ministry, at the request of bankers, has created a credit guarantee fund for education loans. The Ministry of Human Resources has transferred Rs.351.09 crore to the corpus fund and Rs.112.05 crore may be transferred in the next week, according to the Finance Ministry.
It has also asked banks to integrate with the Vidya Lakshmi portal – which is a first of its kind portal providing a single window for students to access information and submit applications for educational loans to banks and for government scholarships.
While 24 banks have registered, only eight have integrated their system with the portal for providing loan processing status to the students. “All the remaining banks are requested to take steps to integrate with the portal,” according to the note.
Source:The Hindu
Wednesday, 4 November 2015
UCO Bank
08:17
Centre yet to implement reforms, public sector banks remain headless
Centre yet to implement reforms, public sector banks remain headless
Over ten months after the government conducted a banking conclave ‘Gyan Sangam’ to chalk out its strategy for public sector banks in early 2015 in Pune, the situation has hardly shown any improvement in terms of governance and performance with the government yet to implement many of the reforms announced earlier.
Four public sector banks :-
- Indian Bank,
- UCO Bank,
- Andhra Bank and
- Bharatiya Mahila Bank .
are functioning without a CEO and MD. Over half a dozen banks, including Oriental Bank of Commerce and Punjab National Bank are without a non-executive chairman. More than ten executive director posts are lying vacant in various PSU banks. Bank of Baroda, which is in the spotlight for an alleged Rs 3,500 crore illegal remittances fraud, got its full-time MD and CEO — PS Jayakumar — on October 13 after nearly 14 months. The appointment of MD for Life Insurance Corporation is also pending and the post of member (non-life) for insurance regulator IRDA is also lying vacant.
The PJ Nayak Committee on ‘Governance of Boards of Banks in India’ submitted its report on reforms in public sector banks 16 months ago. In August 2015, the government announced MDs for five PSU banks and a seven-point framework called ‘Indradhanush’ that included setting up a Bank Board Bureau (BBB) and a holding company.
Source:Bankingupdates
Source:Bankingupdates
Wednesday, 28 October 2015
UCO Bank
08:34
CBI books 'Raindrop' basmati rice producer in massive bank fraud
CBI books 'Raindrop' basmati rice producer in massive bank fraud
In probably one of the biggest bank frauds in recent times, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday filed a case against a private rice producing company, which was once listed on the London and Singapore stock exchanges other than the BSE and co-sponsored IPL's Delhi Daredevil team in 2013.
CBI alleges that the company — REI Agro Limited, which sells basmati rice under brand name 'Raindrops' — defaulted on loans of Rs 3,814.30 crore from a consortium of 15 public sector banks led by UCO bank. Credit facilities in such huge amounts was availed by REI, 2013 onwards but the money was never returned to the banks, says CBI.
The CBI claims that the preliminary probe suggests that there was major diversion of funds from bank loans to other ventures of the company.
After registering a case of cheating, criminal conspiracy and forgery, the CBI raided the premises of REI in Delhi, Kolkata and Haryana's Rewari distict and recovered large number of documents related to the businesses of the company, 10 hard disks and rubber stamps of Andhra Bank and a Dubai-based company.
The CBI has named the firm and its directors — Sanjay Jhunjhunwala, Sandip Jhunjhunwala, N K Gupta and Krishna Daya Ghosh — in its FIR, registered on Monday.
The company could not be reached for comments.
CBI sources said that the company had allegedly created a web of shell companies to facilitate fraudulent transactions related to rice trading, and defrauded banks in India and abroad.Officials added that REI also aggressively publicised its brand on the Mumbai local trains six years back, spending huge money on marketing.
The company was reportedly formed in 1994 and for some period remained listed on London Stock Exchange and Singapore Stock Exchange. It also ran 400 super stores across India with the brand name of 6Ten.
In fact, CBI sources said that in Singapore, financial service provider Credit Suisse has sued the company for $80 million.
The company, on its website, boasts of it being the world's largest basmati rice processing and marketing company.
Source:BankingUpdates.
