Interview | UCO Bank expects to recover NPAs worth Rs 800 crore in Q3FY24: CEO Ashwani Kumar

Ashwani Kumar, MD & CEO UCO Bank

Kolkata-headquartered public sector lender UCO bank is expecting to recover non-perfoming assets (NPA) to the tune of Rs 800 crore in Q3FY24, of which Rs 400 crore is from two Kolkata-based NBFCs, MD & CEO Ashwani Kumar, told Moneycontrol in an exclusive interview on November 6.

He added that the bank has received approval from the Reserve bank of India (RBI) to join the retail side of the central bank’s CBDC pilot.

Edited excerpts:

How much is UCO bank expecting to recover in NPAs in the next quarter (Q3FY24) of this financial year?

We are expecting to recover around Rs 400 crore from two large NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) resolutions already in place ... from two Kolkata-based NBFCs. Overall, we are expecting a recovery of Rs 800 crore in Q3FY24.

What is UCO Bank doing on the digital banking front?

Mobile banking in one year will be 39 percent. We are asking branches to reach out to customers to make sure that they start actively using our mobile app. We are also closely monitoring daily logins and new customer registrations.

What is your guidance on CASA (Current Account and Savings Account) levels?

Our CASA hovers around 37 to 38 percent. With the current deposit rate, people are shifting their savings account balances to Fixed Deposits (FDs), where there is a differential interest rate on the higher side.

Our endeavour will be that we should at least maintain our percentage. If you have seen some banks, there is a reduction in the percentage of CASA deposits over the last quarter.

How keen are you to join the RBI’s Central Bank Digital Currency pilot?

Just a few days back we got approval from the Reserve Bank of India ( RBI) to join the CBDC pilot initiative. We will join only in the retail version. We are very excited and looking at all dimensions of it. Currently, we are in talks with NPCI, and some more work needs to be done.

What is your guidance for Q3FY24?

Overall guidance: credit will be growing on a Y-o-Y basis at 12 to 13 percent. And we’ll work on reducing our gross NPAs and net NPAs. We are also looking to recruit people in the IT domain with different skill sets. There is separate recruitment for IT and for risk management.