Bangalore (PTI): Union Bank of India, the fifth largest nationalised bank, on Saturday said transactions through alternative channels like mobile banking, ATMs have increased from six per cent at the start of 2008-09 to 23 per cent by end of the fiscal.

"We are now targeting to scale it up to 35 per cent in 2009-10," bank's Chairman and Managing Director M V Nair told reporters here.

The alternative delivery channels include internet banking, mobile banking, ATMs and phone banking, he said.

The bank has about 2,000 ATMs and plans to add 1,000 this year and 2,600 branches with a proposal to add 500 more in 2009, said Nair.

The bank had added 33 lakh new customers last year, of which 50 per cent were young customers. It has set itself a target of adding 22 lakh customers this year.

By 2011, the bank planned to reach every panchayat covered in a district where it was the lead bank. It planned to have one lakh Point Of Sale terminals in three years, he said.

He said core banking solutions, moving of services to the central hub and alternative channels had freed a lot of manpower which would be deployed in sales and services, enhancing customer experience and selling products. To ensure quality of service, the bank had drawn 500 from campus recruitments, of each 100 were from top management schools.