Press
Release
Shri V. Leeladhar, Deputy Governor, RBI launches UNITED CBS
United Bank dedicates UNITED CBS to its customers
In an impressive function held today at 'Suchintan'
- Bank's Conference Hall, Shri V. Leeladhar, Deputy Governor,
Reserve Bank of India, dedicated Bank's CBS Facility, christened,
UNITED CBS, to the customers. He also inaugurated Bank's 201st CBS
Branch at Guwahati as also the Data Centre at Kolkata and Disaster
Recovery Centre at Mumbai. The Deputy Governor also released a
brochure and CD on CBS Facility for the use of Bank's customers.
In his welcome address, Shri P.K. Gupta,
Chairman & Managing Director of the Bank, mentioned that the first
branch under the CBS project got rolled out on 15th January 2007 and
thereafter the project has moved very fast. At present, the Bank has
put in 201 Branches under CBS, covering 57% of its business. By
March 2008, the CBS network will cross 350 branches covering 2/3rd
of business. The CBS Data Centre is located at Kolkata whereas the
Disaster Recovery Centre is at Mumbai. The functionality of Disaster
Centre was successfully tested in October 2007 on a real time basis.
United Bank of India is the first Bank to
put all the 18 District Headquarters in the State of West Bengal as
also all the State Capitals of North Eastern Region under Core
Banking Solution, Shri Gupta claimed. Along with CBS, the Bank
is installing important applications in areas like Asset Liability
Management (ALM), Human Resources Management (HRM), Customer
Relationships Management (CRM), Transfer Price Mechanism (TPM),
Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Cash Management System (CMS) and Loans
& Advances Processing System (LAPS). On completion of the project,
UBI would have one of the best CBS infrastructure in the Banking
industry.
At present, the Bank offers Multi Branch
Banking and Internet Banking facility to its customers in 346
branches. The Bank has so far networked 625 branches under a Virtual
Private Network. The Bank has at present 157 ATMs of its own,
besides the tie-up with CashTree and NFS network by virtue of which
Bank's current 3.5 lac card holders can access more than 20,000 ATMs
all over the country. The Bank's card-holders can also use ATMs and
POS Terminals across all global outlets carrying VISA logo. The Bank
also is going to launch Cash Management and Online Trading Services
soon.
Speaking about the Bank's performance
between March 2005 and September 2007, Shri Gupta stated that the
Bank's business has moved up from Rs 37,000 crore to Rs 62,000 crore
(+67%), Deposits from Rs 25,300 crore to Rs 38,800 crore (+50%) and
Advances from Rs 11,700 crore to Rs 23,200 crore (+97%). The Bank's
Credit Deposit Ratio has improved from 46.5% to 60% whereas the
Gross and Net NPAs have come down from 6.13% to 4.10% and from 2.43%
to 1.53%, respectively. During April - September 2007, the Bank's
Net Profit stood at Rs 233 crore registering a growth of 43.4% over
the corresponding period last year. Bank's Capital Adequacy Ratio
stood at a healthy level of 13.92% as on September 2007. The Bank
has added 58 branches during this period to raise the Branch Network
to 1368.
Speaking about certain important initiatives
taken by the Bank, Shri Gupta mentioned that the Bank is in the
process of developing a Medium Term Strategic Business Plan in
collaboration with IIM, Calcutta. For conducting a Customer
Satisfaction Survey, it has retained NIBM and expects to receive
their final report shortly. On HRD front, the Bank has constituted
an HRD Advisory Committee with two eminent HRD Specialists, viz. Dr.
(Mrs.) Deepa Mazumdar of NIBM and Prof. Sudas Roy, an ex-faculty of
IIM, Calcutta.
Shri Gupta expressed satisfaction about the
efforts put in by various technology partners of the CBS project,
viz. HP as System Integretor, Infosys as Provider of CBS Application
Software, BSNL and Reliance as Network Service Provider and HCL
Comnet as Network Integretor. The Deputy Governor, Shri V. Leeladhar,
while appreciating the progress made by the Bank on Information
Technology front, highlighted the challenges that the Banking
Industry faces in terms of implementation of BASEL-II norms and
management of various Risks in accordance with the best global
practices.
Sri V. Leeladhar, Deputy Governor, RBI,
appreciated the initiatives taken by the Bank. He particularly
appreciated the fact that the Bank could migrate 201 of its Branches
and 58 % of its business to CBS inside one years time. Discussing
the issue of challenges before the industry after the year 2009, Sri
Leeladhar stated that pressing issues before banking industry are
(1) Customer retention, (2) Cost pressures and (3) increased
competition. He elaborated on the issue of 'challenges ahead' which
are Data Management, Standardisation, Product proliferation,
Security issues and Business Continuity Plan.
Dated, the 12th December 2007
(Kolkata)
Senior Manager
Public Relations Division
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