UCO to close UK branches

The loss-making UCO Bank is likely to lose a few foreign branches due to continued unremunerative operations. The first to be wound up is the branch in Leicester in the UK. According to official sources, the bank has been advised by the Reserve Bank of India to initiate proceedings to close this branch, which has been chronically in the red. The next in line could be the London branch… Sources say during the last financial year, the bank has had to remit money to its branches in the UK and Hong Kong. Top bank sources, however, say that the bank’s foreign operations are likely to improve during the current financial year…

UCO Bank was among the three banks which had incurred losses for the two years preceding the imposition of the tough income recognition and asset classification norms by the Reserve Bank last year. The other two banks were the Punjab and Sind Bank (PSB) and the erstwhile New Bank of India (NBI) which has since been merged with the Punjab National Bank (PNB).

Boeing offers new version to A-I

After the Airbus Industrie, it is now the turn of the US aircraft manufacturer, Boeing, to woo Air-India to buy its medium capacity long range (MCLR) aeroplane. A four-member Boeing team led by the Director, International Sales, Dr Dinesh A. Keskar, will make a presentation of its variation of the MCLR, the B-777 series, next week to Air-India. An Airbus team was in Bombay last month explaining its version of the MCLR aircraft, the A-340.

Air India plans to go in for MCLR aircraft by 1997-98 and it has to choose from the A-340, B-777 and MD-11. For this, the airline has set up a technical evaluation committee.

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