United Bank of India (UBI) has started credit awareness programme in North India as part of the series of programmes being organised by the bank throughout the country to reach to its retail creditors.On the ocassion, the CMD of UBI Madhukar also distributed sanction letters/disbursement of loans to 51 customers aggregating Rs 11.71 crore. He said that the interest rate charged by the bank for the priority sector is the lowest among the banks at 8.25 per cent, although the bank can charge a rate of 11.5 per cent equivalent to its PLR. He further said that the turnaround of the bank was achieved in a relatively short time through a combination of measures including delegation of power to managers, competitive interest rate regime and better customer care.He said that UBI is also mulling returning government capital worth Rs 800 crore and said there was no financial compulsion for it to go for an initial public offer. The bank, which turned around without any financial package from the Centre, had been focussing on recovery and laid thrust on enhancing lending, from which it is aiming to create an additional Rs 2,000 crore assets by December 2003.
