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NET BANKING: The Union Finance Minister, Mr. P. Chidambaram, and the CMD of United Bank of India, Mr P .K. Gupta, at the launch of Net banking system of the bank in Kolkata on Wednesday. - A.Roy Chowdhury

Kolkata , Dec. 6

The Union Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, has assured United Bank of India (UBI) of all support from his Ministry for restructuring its capital, thereby facilitating enlistment of its shares in the stock exchanges at the earliest.

Although he praised the bank for its performance in the last few years, he advised the bank authority to double its size of business from Rs 50,000 crore to Rs 100,000 crore in the next six years.

Though UBI had to overcome difficult periods since its formation in 1956 and had even been able to pay a maiden dividend to the government for 2006 , Mr Chidambaram felt that it needed to improve the quality and productivity of its human resources (staff and employees) for improving its competitive edge vis-à-vis other banks. He said that the competition would be more severe in the coming years following gradual opening up of the banking sector. Even a small bank could survive in the competition if it were "beautiful" in providing quality services.

Inaugurating UBI's Internet banking service ("United Online") here on Tuesday, Mr Chidambaram said the bank was lagging behind in application of technology vis-à-vis other banks. He asked the bank management to link all its 13,000-plus branches though electronic network.

The bank Chairman & Managing Director, Mr P.K. Gupta, and the Executive Director, Ms Sunanda Lahiri, told the Finance Minister that they had already initiated programmes for improving quality of service and imparting training to its employees.

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