Union Bank To Enter MF Business

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The public sector Union Bank has decided to enter the Mutal Fund business as part of its diversification process, Bank Chairman and Managing Director M V Nair said here on Monday.

"We will start looking for a partner for the Mutal Fund business and it will be operationalised by the middle of next fiscal," he told reporters after the two-day Board meeting of the Bank here.

The bank expected to start its Life Insurnace business, for which it has signed up with Daichi Life Insurance, Japan, and Bank of India, by the end of this financial year, he said.

Nair said the board discussed the strategies to be adopted for the next four years and decided to explore the possiblity of entering into the venture capital area and looking for a foreign partner for credit card trade, he added.

The objective was to position itself as a 'Global Bank' and the process of re-positioning itself in tune with this would start by next February. There are plans to change the logo and colour, but no move to change the name, he said.

The Bank plans to enter 20 countries by 2012, subject to approval of the controller. The first representative office was opened in Shanghai in May 2007 and it plans to open its first full-fledged overseas branch in Homg Kong in February next, he said.

As part of expansion plans, the Bank opened 124 branches last year and plans to open 150 this year.

The bank has a total of 2,200 branches with total business of more than Rs.1,60,000 crore as on September last.

On the Bank's corporate social responsibility initiatives, he said it planned to set up a Public Referral Library at Kochi at an investment of Rs two crore. "We are waiting for land approval" he said.