Public sector lender, Union Bank of India has decided to keep aside Rs 500 crore as a part of the first phase of financial inclusion in Andhra Pradesh.

According to MV Nair, Chairman and Managing Director of the bank, the bank has decided to utilise this amount for funding 650 primary agricultural cooperative societies (PACs).

The funds would be disbursed according to the credit record data which is being prepared by CoOptions Technologies. So far 2700 PACs have been revived by the state government and others have been closed.

Use of biometric smart cards have also been started by the bank for fund disbursal under different schemes of the government. 2 million cards have already been launched so far which according to Nair is quite a big number considering only 200 branches of the bank in Andhra.

Speaking about the microfinance business of UBI in AP, Nair said that the bank has lent lent Rs 291 crore to 45 MFIs across the country, of which 15 MFIs were in AP.