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There was a time when the United Bank of India was trapped in its worst operational phase ever with an accumulation of non-performing assets that seemed to go beyond control. In fact, the Reserve Bank of India had put a ban on any further lending and this had grounded the bank's business to a halt. The resignation of its chairman and managing director on February 20, 2014 and the negative media reports were raising doubts about the bank's survival. At that point, the author was given the responsibility of managing its affairs and try and salvage both the fortunes and the reputation of the bank. Working with the objective of doing so within a short and strict deadline, the author and the bank's staff nevertheless turned an impossible scenario into a rewarding reality. The article spells out the strategies employed to achieve this turnaround
Introduction
United Bank of India (UBI) is one of the 14 major banks which were nationalised on July 19, 1969. Its predecessor, the United Bank of India Ltd., was formed in 1950 with the amalgamation of four banks viz. Comilla Banking Corporation Ltd. (1914), Bengal Central Bank Ltd. (1918), Comilla Union Bank Ltd. (1922) and Hooghly Bank Ltd. (1932) (which were established in the years indicated in brackets after the names). The origin of the bank thus goes as far back as to 1914. As against 174 branches, Rs 147 crore of deposits and Rs 112 crore of advances at the time of nationalisation in July 1969, today the bank is 100% CBS-enabled with 1,999 branches and offices and has a total business of more than Rs 2 lakh crore. Presently the bank has a three-tier organisational set-up consisting of the head office, 35 regional offices and the several branches (source: www.unitedbankofindia.com).
In the previous year, the performance of UBI had not been encouraging with the bank posting huge losses in 2014. However, concerted efforts on the part of the bank through strategies devised by the senior management helped in enabling a turnaround of the bank in 2015 starting from Q4 2013-14 after the author took charge on February 20, 2014. In the previous two quarters (Q2 and Q3, 2013-14) the losses of the bank had been so severe on...