Our Bureau

Mumbai, Nov. 14

At a time when banks globally are laying off people, Union Bank of India is planning to hire 5,000 more people for manning the over 500 additional branches the bank will be opening in the next five months.

Mr M.V. Nair, Chairman and Managing Director of Union Bank of India, said the bank will recruit 4,000 officers and 1,000 clerical and other staff. The bank has just received an approval from the Reserve Bank of India for opening 539 branches, he said.

The bank currently has about 2,552 outlets, which will go up to around 3,000 by end of the current fiscal. “These physical outlets will be the key drivers to servicing customers,” Mr Nair said.

The bank will open 110 branches in districts where it has no presence. It will also look to increase its network in the North-East region.

Under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission, it will open branches in 63 centres which have been taken up for faster growth and the rest will be in unbanked areas. “The aim is to open 50 per cent of branches in unbanked areas and the remaining in banked areas,” Mr Nair explained.

The bank is also looking to increase the number of ATMs to 2,500 from around 1,500 now and the debit card base to around 40 lakh from 31 lakh.

The cost of setting up a new branch will range from Rs 40 lakh for a branch in metros to Rs 10 lakh in rural areas. The new branches are expected to break-even in 12-18 months.

Mr Nair was speaking to reporters after launching the bank’s new mobile service.

Mobile banking

Union Bank is the first bank to launch the mobile banking services after the RBI announced the guidelines for mobile banking, in September 2008.

To begin with, the service — called U mobile — is available only on GSM mobiles, but across all service providers. The bank will not charge any fees for the first six months and will take a call on the pricing later, Mr Nair said. If more transactions happen through the mobile, the operational cost for the bank will eventually come down, he added.

The bank has tied up with the software services company FSS Ltd to offer the mobile banking service.

Currently, the service can be used only to transfer funds from one account of Union Bank to another account. Going ahead, the bank will also offer fund transfer to accounts of other banks and also utility payments, movie ticketing and travel payments.

“The biggest beneficiaries of mobile payment will be parents sending money to students and utility payments. Mobile based payments will also play a big role in financial inclusion,” he said.

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