UCO Bank

UCO Bank, formerly United Commercial Bank, is an Indian public sector bank, and financial services government owned body headquartered in Kolkata. It is a medium sized public sector bank in India and ranked 1948 in Forbes Global 2000 list of year 2018 & ranked 80 on the Fortune India 500 list in 2020. During FY 2023–24, its total business was ₹4.51 lakh crore. The market capitalisation of bank is ₹71,079 crore (2024).
UCO Bank's headquarter is in BTM Sarani, Kolkata which is making it the only Government of India owned bank in the east India. As of 31 March 2024 the bank had 4,000 plus service units & 43 zonal offices spread all over India. It also has two overseas branches in Singapore and Hong Kong.
UCO bank is one of the special bank which facilitates the mechanism of Rupee-Rial and Rupee-Ruble trade of India between Iran & Russia respectively. It become the first bank to open a unique "lockless" branch in Shani Shinganapur in Maharashtra to show the respect to general belief and faith of the people on lord Shani.
G. D. Birla, an eminent Indian industrialist, during the Quit India movement of 1942, conceived the idea of organising a commercial bank with Indian capital and management, and the United Commercial Bank Limited was incorporated to give shape to that idea. The bank was started with Kolkata as its head office with an issued capital of ₹2 crores, of which ₹1 crore was actually paid up. Birla was its chairman; the Board of Directors included eminent personalities of India drawn from many fields. The bank opened 14 branches simultaneously across India.
After World War II, United Commercial Bank opened several overseas branches. The first, in 1947, was in Rangoon. Branches in Singapore (1951), Hong Kong (March 1952), London (1953), and Malaysia followed. In 1963 the Burmese government nationalized United Commercial Bank's three branches there, which became People's Bank No. 6.
The Bank's Singapore Operations commenced on 21 April 1951 with the opening of the Singapore Main branch and subsequently Serangoon branch was opened in "Little India" on 7 March 1959. The international linkage from Singapore is supported by a large number of Indian branches network through the Integrated Treasury Branch, Mumbai. Other branches in India also provide international banking facilities through Authorised Branches of the bank.
This international network is further augmented by correspondent arrangements with leading Banks at all important world centres in various countries.
On 15 September 1967, Jalpaiguri Banking and Trading Corporation (JBTC) which had been established in Jalpaiguri in 1887 (or 1889; accounts differ), made a voluntary transfer of its assets and liabilities to United Commercial Bank. JBTC had only one office and specialised in lending against mortgages on tea gardens.
The Government of India nationalised United Commercial Bank on 19 July 1969. The nationalised bank continued the operations of the overseas branches in London, Singapore, and Hong Kong. However, Malaysian law forbade foreign government ownership of banks in Malaysia. Therefore, United Commercial Bank (UCO Bank), Indian Overseas Bank, and Indian Bank contributed their operations in Malaysia to a new joint-venture bank incorporated in Malaysia, United Asian Bank with each of the three parent banks owning a third of the shares. At the time, Indian Bank had three branches, and Indian Overseas Bank and United Commercial Bank had eight between them.
To keep pace with the developing scenario and expansion of business, the Bank undertook an exercise in organisational restructuring in the year 1972. This resulted in more functional specialisation, decentralisation of administration and emphasis on the development of personnel skills and attitudes. Side by side, whole-hearted commitment to the government's poverty alleviation programmes continued and the convenorship of the State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) was entrusted to the Bank for Odisha and Himachal Pradesh in 1983.
An act of parliament changed the bank's name to UCO Bank in 1985, as a bank in Bangladesh existed with the name United Commercial Bank PLC, which caused confusion in the international banking arena.
In 1991, Bank of Commerce acquired United Asian Bank; in time CIMB came to own Bank of Commerce.
In 1998, UCO closed its London branch. Bank of Baroda acquired the assets and liabilities, but not the personnel, who were made redundant.
As on 31 March 2024, government share-holding in the bank was 95.39%. For FY 2023–24, it registered ₹1,653.74 crore net profit with global business of the Bank stood at Rs. 4,50,007 crore as compared to Rs. 4,10,967 crore showing an increase of 9.50% over March 2023.
The Bank's Regional presence includes 3,230 branches excluding 2 Foreign branches and 2,564 ATMs as in March 2024.
The domestic branches include 6 Flagship corporate branches, 7 Asset Management branches, 4 service branches, 1 central pension processing center and 1 integrated treasury branch. Further 25 MCU branches, 39 Retail loan Hubs, 28 Agriculture Loan Hubs, 21 SME Hub and 72 currency chests are also functioning across the country attached to the major city branches of various centres.
Besides providing inland banking services through its vast network of branches in India, UCO Bank has a vital presence in the financial markets outside India. UCO Bank presently has 2 overseas branches (one each in Singapore and HongKong) and 1 representative office has been established in Tehran, Iran.
As of August 2023, the UCO Bank Board of Directors has nine members:
The governance of the Bank all around the nation's respective regional areas is managed by a network of 43 Zonal Offices. These are present in major as well as crucial parts of the country.
The training of newly recruited as well as present staff is overseen by seven training colleges around India:
Paschim Banga Gramin Bank a Regional Rural Bank of West Bengal is the subsidiary of UCO Bank with 35% stake.
The bank has requested the RBI for an approval for new Non-Banking entities under its command. The new entities would ensure a complete market foothold.
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