Lok Sabha Question No. 1205 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-07-25
Subject: Services of Union Bank of India
Ministry: FINANCE
Asked by: Talari Rangaiah

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF FINANCE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCIAL SERVICES

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1205

TO BE ANSWERED ON 25 th  JULY, 2022 (MONDAY) / SRAVANA 3, 1944 (SAKA)

## Services of Union Bank of India

1205.  DR. TALARI RANGAIAH:

Will the Minister of FINANCE be pleased to state: (a) whether there are numerous branches of Union Bank of India in the rural areas, where the number of employees is less than the sanctioned/required strength of the branches; (b)  if  so,  whether  any  survey  has  been  conducted  in  respect  of  the  bank  for  their deficiency of service/ poor services in rural areas and if so, the details and the outcome thereof; and (c) the steps taken/proposed to be taken by the Government to bring improvement in

- services of rural branches of the bank across India including Andhra Pradesh?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE (DR. BHAGWAT KARAD)

(a) to (c): Union Bank of India (UBI) has informed that it has total 8,667 branches in the country, out of which 2,527 branches are in rural areas and in these branches, 97% staff  is  in  position  against  sanctioned  rural  branches  staff  strength.  The  small proportion  of  vacancies is  substantially  on  account of  attrition,  superannuation  and other  usual  factors.  Banks  undertake  staff  recruitment  to  fill  vacancies  on  ongoing basis as per their requirement. In reference to deficiency in services in rural areas, UBI has informed that as per  its  mission  to  be  a  customer  centric  organization,  it  continues  to  provide  best possible customer service and also endeavors to satisfy the needs of its customers at all service points including in rural areas. In addition to above, bank has consistently taken steps to improve its customer service, including in rural areas, by -

- (i)  increasing the average number of staff and business correspondents servicing each rural branch from 7 in 2015 to 8 in 2022; and
- (ii)  improving  the  average  network  speed  supporting  the  core  banking  solution, from 64 kbps as on 31.3 2015 to 2 mbps as on 31.3.2022, to ensure smooth banking services in rural areas.

Government has taken comprehensive steps to bring improvement in services of the branches, including rural branches, of the banks across India, including Andhra Pradesh, which includes, inter alia , the following -

- (i)  enabling ease of accessibility to banking services and ensuring that language is not a barrier through -
- a)  availability of local language customer-interface for smart banking digital channels like mobile banking, internet banking and call centres.
- b)  all printed material to be used by customers including account opening forms, pass books, etc. are made available in trilingual including Telugu.
- c)  Availability of redressal of customer grievances in Telugu.
- (ii)  enhancing the availability of banking services with the advancement in the field of anytime channels in the country, including in rural areas; and
- (iii)  implementing Enhanced Access Service Excellence (EASE), the PSB reforms agenda, thereby enabling, inter alia, -
- a)  System-driven  grievance  redressal  mechanism-  real-time  complaint status tracking by the complainant;
- b)  Availability of basic customer amenities at the branches;
- c)  Banking from home and mobile through digital banking products, such as Internet banking, mobile banking and phone banking; and
- d)  setting  up  of  loan  management  systems  and  centralised  processing centres  at  PSBs,  including  Agriculture  Hubs,  end-to-end  automated digital  lending  for  loans  to  micro-enterprises,  MSMEs  and  retail  loans thus improving the turn-around-time (TAT) of processing and sanction of loans and credit access to individuals, including those belonging to rural areas.

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