Union Bank of India has won new laurels, ranking third amongst 12 public sector banks (PSBs) in EASE 4.0 Reforms Index for Q1 FY22. The ranking list was released by the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA). 

The bank has been actively adopting the reforms initiatives recommended under the EASE Agenda, enabling it to retain the overall position of second runner-up for the last three consecutive quarters since December 2020.

Union Bank of India also recorded stellar performance under four out of six themes in the Agenda. It was adjudged winner in the themes ‘Collaborating for synergistic outcomes’ and ‘Governance & outcome-centric HR’. It got the runner-up positions in ‘New age 24x7 Banking’ and ‘Tech-enabled ease of Banking’ themes.

Enhanced Access & Service Excellence (EASE) is an initiative by the Department of Financial Services (DFS) as part of the PSB reforms agenda and is currently under its fourth iteration, with focus on collaborative banking and the digital transformation of the PSBs.

Union Bank of India recently upped its recovery target for the current fiscal to Rs 16,000 crore after seeing a good run in the first half of the year. The state-owned bank, which had earlier set the target of recovering Rs 13,000 crore from bad loans in the current financial year, has already upgraded and recovered Rs 10,000 crore in the first six months of FY22.

The bank, which reported a nearly three-fold year-on-year jump in its standalone net profit to Rs 1,526 crore in the September quarter, saw its recovery and upgrades up 75% during this period over the year-ago quarter, with the stock of bad loans dipping 16%. The gross bad loan ratio fell to 12.34% in the fiscal second quarter, from 14.71% a year ago.