Parkash Singh in Calcutta on Wednesday. Picture by K Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, June 30: United Bank of India (UBI) has decided to open its first international branch in Bangladesh.

The bank has also decided to wipe out its losses of Rs 577 crore, accumulated in the early 90s’ following the introduction of prudential norms, in the next two years.

“We have already applied to the Reserve Bank of India seeking permission to open a branch in Bangladesh. We would like it to happen in the current financial year,” chairman and managing director Parkash Singh said at an interactive session on ‘New vistas in investment opportunities: Focus West Bengal’, organised by the Bharat Chamber of Commerce here today.

“Industrialists and traders from Tripura have been doing good business with Bangladesh. There has been a long-standing demand from them to open a branch in the neighbouring country to facilitate trade,” he added.

The bank has seen its advances rise in the first three months of the current fiscal. In 2003-04, its total lending stood at Rs 8,400 crore.

“In the first three months, our credit portfolio stands at Rs 9000 crore — an addition of Rs 600 crore,” he added.

It has been decided that the credit deposit (CD) ratio of banks in Bengal, which is low at present, should touch 52 per cent by March 31, 2005, Singh said. “We have called a state-level bankers’ meeting on July 19 to discuss issues related to the CD ratio,” he added.

On tea, he said the bank has lent the industry Rs 357 crore, of which non-performing assets were about Rs 60 crore. “We have restructured all the loan accounts in a bid to provide relief to the industry,” he said.

The bank has also cut short the time limit for sanctioning project loans. The branch manager will have to decide in 5-10 days, while the head-office will get three.