Public sector lender, United Bank of India (UBI) has plans to increase its presence in the northern part of India. The bank aims to add more branches in this region and has targetted Punjab and Haryana for the same.

The bank plans to set up seven more branches in these two states by the end of this fiscal.

Bhaskar Sen, CMD of the bank said, "Majority of our branches are restricted to the East and North east, now we are focusing on the Northern region and subsequently the southern part of the country. At present we have network of 26 branches in the North comprising Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. We have opened our regional office in Chandigarh today and further we are planning to add seven more branches in Punjab and Haryana. We are also looking at setting up retail hub in Chandigarh."

The bank has already given application to RBI for license to open 53 new branches. Amongst them, 46 would be in the Eastern and North Eastern region. The bank also plans to open 500 ATMs in the country by fiscal end.

Speaking about expaning offshore, Sen said, " We have repo office in Dhaka and has plans to convert it into full fledged branch in two years time." On being asked about the new initiative, he mentioned, " We would focus on technology based products, besides we would improve the ambience of the branches. We would introduce mobile banking in another six months. Our main thrust area is SME, retail and Agriculture."

Commenting upon effect of base rate, he said, " The Base rate has helped us in improving the bottom lines besides helping the retail and SME customers. The base rate regime replaced BPLR from July 1."