Considering the impact of slowdown in the industry, Union Bank of India (UBI) has restructured 15000 accounts with an outstanding of Rs 1600 crore.

In the past four months, UBI has restructured loans extended to different sectors of the economy. Amongst these, 4,500 loan accounts of ailing micro enterprises and around 284 accounts of small and medium enterprises with an outstanding of Rs 103 crore and Rs 108 crore respectively have been restructured by the bank.

Union Bank's Chairman and Managing Director, S C Gupta said, "At the state level bankers committee (SLBC), we are in touch with various micro small and medium enterprise (MSME) associations, for collecting their feedback. Based on that we will decide future course of action to support to the sector."

He said that the bank normally lends to the SME sector at interest rate that is 100 basis points below prime lending rate (PLR).

Meanwhile the board of Union Bank has approved a capital restructuring plan that will reduce its paid-up capital to about Rs 226 crore from the present level of Rs 1,532 crore.

The bank has also started a loan requirement helpline for SMEs and MSMEs. Union Bank expects to bring down its non-performing assets (NPAs) by half percentage by the fiscal end.

Commenting on the credit take off during the present quarter, Gupta said the bank's performance has improved from the last quarter with a quarterly growth of around 18%.

He further said that the bank expected an year-on-year growth of 22% in advances and 10% in the deposit front during the current fiscal.