United Bank of India (UBI) announced that it has posted a rise of 4.2% in its net profit, which remained at Rs 1.49 billion for the three month period ended March 31, 2012 as against Rs 1.43 billion during the same period last year.

Kolkata-based bank registered a net profit of Rs 6.32 billion during the last financial, up by 20.7% as against the last financial.

UBI chairman and managing director Bhaskar Sen stated, "The rate of growth in profit was slow as 2011-12 was a difficult year with higher slippage in NPA (non-performing assets) and cost of funds."

The bank's gross NPA proportion reached 3.41% as against 2.51% quarter-on-quarter, whilst net NPA proportion augmented to 1.72 percent at Rs 10.75 billion in the same period.

The banking institution anticipates that its biz growth during the existing financial would be around 20%.

UBI, which has approximately 1,680 divisions at present, proposes to launch 100 new branches in 2012-13.

On asset side, Mr. Kaul stated that the banking institution was making attempts to lessen its reliance on bulk corporate credits and pushing more on retail credits like agriculture and SMEs.

Bank executive director N.R. Badrinarayanan stated, "We want to de-risk the balance sheet by reducing our exposure to big accounts."

Mr. Badrinarayanan stated that over 60% of UBI's overall advances lie in the corporate division presently, whereas retail accounts for just 8.5%.