United Bank of India was constituted under the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970 on July 19, 1969. The bank is promoted by the President of India, acting through the ministry of finance, Government of India. The bank is a public sector banking institution with branches in 28 states and four Union Territories in India. As of January 31, 2010, it had 1,505 branches, 270 ATMs, 28 regional offices, ten extension counters and one representative office in Dhaka, Bangladesh. As of January 31, 2010, it had a workforce of 16,768 employees (including part-time employees). The bank delivers its products and services through the branches, extension counters, ATMs, internet banking and tele banking. As of January 31, 2010, its domestic branch network of 1,505 branches comprised 622 rural, 262 semiurban, 333 urban and 288 metropolitan branches.

United Bank of India is one of the 14 banks that were nationalized on July 19, 1969. On October 12, 1950, the name of Bengal Central Bank Limited (established in 1918 as Bengal Central Loan Company Limited) was changed to United Bank of India Limited for the purpose of amalgamation and on December 18, 1950, Comilla Banking Corporation Limited (established in 1914), the Comilla Union Bank Limited (established in 1922), the Hooghly Bank (established 1932) stood amalgamated with the bank. Subsequently, other banks namely, Cuttack Bank Limited, Tezpur Industrial Bank Limited, Hindusthan Mercantile Bank Limited and Narang Bank of India Limited were merged with the bank.The bank is currently wholly-owned by the Government of India (GoI).

Business areas of the bank:

The bank's business is principally divided into retail banking, corporate / wholesale banking, priority sector banking, treasury operations and other banking services such as agency functions for insurance and mutual fund distribution, pension and tax collection services. Its retail banking business provides financial products and services to its retail customers. It provides loans and advances for housing, trade, automobiles, consumer durables, education, personal loans and other retail products. The bank is having various deposit products, such as current, savings and term deposits for their customers. It provides commercial banking products and services to corporate customers, including mid-sized and small businesses and government entities. Its loan products include term loans to finance capital expenditure of assets across various industries as well as short-term loans, cash and export credit and other working capital financing and bill discounting facilities. It also provides credit substitutes, such as letter of credit and letter of guarantee. It offers direct financing to farmers for production and investment, as well as indirect financing for infrastructure development and credit to suppliers of agricultural inputs. As per RBI guidelines, it is required to lend at least 40% of its adjusted net bank credit or credit equivalent to off balance sheet exposure, whichever is higher to the priority sector, including at least 18% to the agriculture sector. The bank has given considerable thrust to lending to the priority sector, including the agriculture sector. It also offers a wide range of general banking services to its customers including debit cards, cash management, remittance services and collection services. It distributes third party products such as life and non-life insurance policies and mutual funds on an agency basis. In addition, it acts as an agent for various state governments and the Government of India on numerous matters including the collection of taxes and payment of salary and pension.

Milestones:

• 1961 - The Cuttack Bank and The Tezpur Bank merged with the bank

• 1964 - Staff Training College at Kolkata (then Calcutta) was setup

• 1969 - The bank was nationalized by GoI

• 1970 - Mobile branches were set up by the bank

• 1973 - Hindusthan Mercantile Bank merged with the bank

• 1976 - Narang Bank of India merged with the United Bank of India

• 1980 - Appointed as convenor of State Level Bankers’ Committee in West Bengal, Tripura and Manipur

• 1993 - First branch brought under total branch mechanism

• 1995 - Crossed business level of Rs 10,000 crore

• 2006 - Crossed business level of Rs 50,000 crore

• 2007 - Rolled out first CBS branch

• 2007 - Setup United Bank Socio-Economic Development Foundation Trust in 2007 for rendering assistance to the weaker and under privileged sections of the society

• 2007 - Setup the first Rural Development & Self Employment Training Institute to provide residential training to small farmers and unemployed youth free of cost

• 2009 - Achieved 100% CBS for all its branches

• 2009 - Crossed business level of Rs 100,000 crore

Tie-Up Arrangements:

• Government of West Bengal on August 8, 2009 for providing housing loans to its employees

• Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL) on August 22, 2009 for providing residential housing finance under an arrangement of syndicated loan structure

• UAE Exchange & Financial Services on May 8, 2008 for providing overseas inward remittance services through two products, namely XpressMoney and MoneyGram. XpressMoney deals with the remittances from Gulf countries and MoneyGram deals with the remittances from other countries

• Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) on October 26, 2009 for implementation of Scheme of Interest Subsidy for Housing the Urban Poor (ISHUP) and for the purpose of providing housing loans to economically weaker sections and low income groups

• VE Commercial Vehicle limited (a Volvo Group and Eicher Motors Joint Venture) on 2 February 2009 for financing EICHER brand trucks and buses

• National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), a Government of India enterprise for providing finance to entrepreneurs under micro and small enterprise sector sponsored by NSIC

Awards and achievements:

• 2006 National Award for the second best performance in financing small scale units by Ministry of Small Scale Industries, Government of India• 2007 Golden Jubilee Award for the best bank in north east zone for excellence in the field of khadi and village industries from the Ministry of MSME, Government of India

• 2007- 2008 Best Bancassurance partner by Tata AIG

• 2008 National Award for the best bank for excellence in field of Khadi and village industries for east and north east zones from the Ministry of MSME, Government of India

• 2008-2009 Pinnacle Partner of the year by Tata AIG. Highest contributor to lives insured by Tata AIG

• 2009 National Award under Prime Minister Employment Guarantee Programme in north east zone from the Ministry of MSME, Government of India

Associates:

• Bangiya Gramin Vikash Bank

• Assam Gramin Vikash Bank

• Tripura Gramin Bank

• Manipur Rural Bank