Union Bank of India is very soon going to cross the Rs. 3 lakh crore mark in terms of total business, it said. The bank would thus enlist itself in the elite group with State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of India (BoI), Bank of Baroda (BoB) and Punjab National Bank (PNB).

The bank is expecting to reach the target by the June quarter of the current fiscal. It expects to continue growing in areas of small and medium enterprises, retail and agriculture owing to strong signs of recovery of the economy, Union Bank of India Chairman and Managing Director M V Nair said.

The bank has set a target of 25% credit growth for this fiscal, he added.

Loans to small firms, agriculture and retail form 50% of the total advance book of the bank and MSMEs and agri loans share close to 19 per cent each.

"We have already reached Rs 2.91-lakh crore as of end last fiscal and is confident of a very good growth in the current fiscal. This year the growth in loans and deposits has been projected at around 25 per cent," Nair said.

The bank showed a decent performance in the last fiscal with 23.3% growth in total advances amounting to Rs. Rs 1,21,000 crore at the end of the fiscal.

"We have seen a very healthy credit growth in the year just ended at a rate of over 23 per cent. Moving ahead, the focus will be equally on both the retail and wholesale portfolios. Currently, home and auto loans contribute around 12 per cent of our total loanbook," Nair said.

"The growth in advances, across the industry is estimated to be around 16 per cent and in the deposits it is pegged at 18 per cent. Compared to this, our numbers appear phenomenal. We have set an objective to consistently grow above the industry by 5 per cent," he added.

Union Bank's deposits went up by nearly 23 per cent to Rs 1,70,000 crore, of which the proportion of current and savings account deposits grew by 29 per cent to Rs 53,800 crore in the recently ended fiscal.