Publicly-held Union bank of India has signed a deal with the international payments company Mastercard and is optimistic to issue over 15 lakh debit cards by the fiscals end.

UBI aims at issuing the debit cards with Mastercard logo by March 2010. Pravin K Bansal, UBI's general Manager transaction banking said, "We aim to focus more on the rural merchant-clients with this tie-up."

To start with UBI would launch four variants of debit cards, Classic (withdrawal limit Rs. 25000 per day), Silver (Rs. 40,000), Gold (Rs. 60,000) and Platinum (Rs 100,000).

He added that this tie up with Mastercard would enable its customers to have access over 9 lakh ATMs globally.

The bank also has a tie-up with VISA, another global company. UBI's current total debit card base stands at 41 lakh.

Bansal also pointed out that the bank was hopeful to achieve Rs. 140-150 crore fee income from its transaction banking segment this financial year.

UBI which had planned to increase its branch network has slowed down its expansion operations (oct 8) due to inadequate staff. The bank was planning to set up 500 new branches by the end of this fiscal.