The Finance Minister of India, Arun Jaitley, inaugurated the first overseas subsidiary for Union Bank of India (UK) Ltd in the UK in the presence of Ranjan Mathai, High Commissioner of India to the UK, Alderman & Sherriff of the City of London, Dr Andrew Parmley and Arun Tiwari Chairman and Managing Director of Union Bank
Speaking on the occasion Mr Jaitley lauded the Public Sector Banks and Union Bank of India in particular for their performance in lending to the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), infrastructure sector and financial inclusion – Jan Dhan Yojana1 – 12.5 crore bank accounts were opened for the 42% excluded households of India. The
He stated that the larger PSBs like Union Bank of India are becoming multi-national and wished the new bank Union Bank of India (UK) Ltd all success.
The Chairman and Managing Director Mr. Tiwari speaking on the occasion of the inauguration of the UK subsidiary said, “India’s great growth story continues with a renewed emphasis coming from the recent political changes, positive economic outlook. India can definitely emerge as one of the fastest growing economies in the next decade. Indian corporates are becoming global and growing by virtue of their ability to handle huge projects and potential available in untapped geographies and trade. Union Bank will ensure that both
Indian and local corporates and SMEs are well facilitated with banking services”.
The Chairman further stated that the vision of the bank is to achieve an overseas business level of 10% of the total group business from the present level of 4.70% by the bank’s centenary year in 2019.
Union Bank of India (UK) Ltd will undertake retail and wholesale banking. In retail banking the focus will be on current, savings, fixed term deposits and remittances. While in the wholesale banking the focus will be on syndicated loans, external commercial borrowings, SMEs, trade finance facilities and current accounts.
Union Bank of India is the 6th largest Bank in India in the public sector space with over $59 billion assets; a pan India presence with over 4000 branches and 6700 ATMs spread across all parts of India. Continuing with its global aspirations, Union Bank of India commenced international operations only as late as 2007 and in the short span of 8 years has an international presence with branches in Hong Kong, DIFC- Dubai, Antwerp, and a subsidiary in the UK. The bank has representative offices in Abu Dhabi, Shanghai, Beijing and Sydney. The bank is looking to mark its presence in the African continent as
Union Bank of India has an unblemished record of corporate governance and a continuous record of profitability over the last 95 years. The bank is well capitalised and compliant with globally accepted capital ratios. The bank has a good IT platform and leveraging on technology, the Bank is focusing on retail and medium scale sectors for its growth on the domestic front. A few of the initiatives like fully automated specialized Union Experience
Branches, technology based delivery channels including through mobile and ATM networks would continue to be the focus in the years to come to serve its growing customer base of over 50 million.