UCO Bank to hire 820 people across India
Plans to open 20 branches in Telangana, AP
image for illustrative purpose
Hyderabad UCO Bank is all set to hire 820 people all over India by the end of this financial year. Out of them, 350 persons will be deployed at the new branches and the remaining 470 will be working at field operations. The Kolkata-based bank has the youngest workforce with an average age of 35 years, said Soma Sankara Prasad, MD & CEO of the bank. He was here on Saturday to inaugurate a refurbished branch in the city.
He said, "Over 22,000 employees and 4,000 banking correspondents are currently working for UCO Bank across India. The 79-year-old bank has more than 3,000 branches all over the country and it is going to open 200 new branches in a year. Among them, 20 branches will be opened in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The new branches shall achieve breakeven within one-and-half years of setting up."
Prasad said: "We are going to augment the presence of the bank in the two Telugu States. We have 81 branches here and 605 employees are working at present. Both States have done a total business of Rs 11,700 crore in financial year 2021-22. We are focusing on expanding our operations in rural areas, particularly in the unbanked villages."
UCO Bank was placed under Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework in 2017 due to its deteriorating financial health and it was focusing on the recovery. After coming out of the PCA in August 2021, it has been concentrating on the growth and expansion. The bank has been earning profits for the past few quarters. It has reported a profit of more than Rs 100 crore by the end of June 2021, he informed.
The bank has posted a profit of Rs 200 crore by the end of September 2021 and Rs 310 crore by the end of December 2021. It has a capital adequacy ratio of 14.56 per cent, while the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) prescription is 11.5 per cent. So, it would not require fresh capital for the next one-and-half years. Its provisioning Coverage Ratio (PCR) is the second highest among all the banks at 91.3 per cent.
The bank would also advance loans for the purchase of assets under the National Asset Monetisation Programme (NAMP) of the Government of India. The bank's main focus was on RAM sectors – Retail loans like home loans, Agriculture loans and Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) loans, where the non-performing assets (NPAs) would be lesser.
