UCO Bank Confident Of Coming Out Of RBI’s PCA Framework By March Next Year

Public sector lender UCO Bank is confident of coming out of the RBI's Prompt Corrective Action framework by March next year and hopes to turn profitable by the last quarter of fiscal year 2020, its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Atul Kumar Goel said today.

The Reserve Bank of India's PCA framework kicks in when banks breach any of the four key regulatory trigger points, namely capital-to-risk weighted assets ratio, net non-performing assets, return on assets (profitability), and leverage ratio.

"We are growing quarterly, and we have pledged to come out of the PCA framework. I am hopeful and confident we will come out of PCA by March 2020," Goel told reporters on the sidelines of the bank's meeting of branch heads.

"In the quarter ending June 2019, we have shown an operating profit of Rs 1,201 crore. It is the highest in the last fourteen quarters. Loss is only on account of non performing asset provision. If we recover from NPA, this provision will reduce and we will come into profitability," Goel added.

Speaking on the NPA front, he said, "Our NPA in March 2019 was Rs 29,786 crore. It has reduced to Rs 29,432 crore. Net NPA in March 2019 was Rs 9,650 crore, and it has come down to Rs 8,782 crore in June quarter."

Goel said the bank had set an NPA recovery target of Rs 2,000 crore per quarter, or Rs 8,000 crore per year, in addition to cases referred to National Company Law Tribunal.

"In NCLT cases, I am confident, within this quarter, as on date, we should be in a position to recover at least Rs 1,500 crore from three-four big accounts. This will be done in December if not in September," he said.

The Sunday meeting here was part of the Union finance ministry's directives to PSU banks to hold consultation and seek suggestions from officers starting from branch level, in order to align banking with national priorities.