To strengthen new initiative through staff training programme across 250 branches starting this month

Union Bank of India plans to strengthen its customer service mechanism, according to AA Thakur, the bank's deputy general manager in Kolkata. "The bank is going to institute a training programme for its officials and create an intelligence unit for this," Mr Thakur said.

Mr Thakur was speaking at the Moneylife Foundation seminar, titled "Investor, Empower Yourself", in Kolkata, on Saturday, 4th June.

The new initiative marks the sequel to UBI's 'Nav Nirman' customer assistance programme. Branches will be revamped, call centre services made more efficient and the grievance redressal system made faster, said Mr Thakur.

"Beginning this month, these initiatives will be rolled out across about 250 branches over the next one year, and this will be scaled up to cover the rest of the organisation," Mr Thakur said.

He lauded the efforts by Moneylife towards achieving greater consumer satisfaction and spreading financial literacy. "Without consumer awareness, we cannot ask for consumer satisfaction. It is good that Moneylife has taken the responsibility to educate people on financial issues," Mr Thakur said.

Debashis Basu, editor, Moneylife, described simple investment principles that can lead to substantial wealth creation over a long period of time. He explained how to invest smartly in equity schemes and stocks, and pointed out the merits of compounded interest over a long term. The key, he said, was to start early and with modest expectations and hold on for a long term.

Mr Basu also warned investors about investing in portfolio management schemes. Citing historical data, he also showed what would be the ideal mutual funds and stocks to invest in. He said, "The market is full of names, but barring a few, none have yielded substantial returns over the long run. There are many schemes with fancy names, but one has to look at how they have performed over the years, and the margin by which they have beaten the market."

Sucheta Dalal, managing editor, Moneylife, and trustee of Moneylife Foundation, focused on scams in investment schemes and how to avoid them. She warned people against getting involved in chain-marketing schemes and to be alert about internet scams that have landed many people in trouble and cost them considerable money.

Ms Dalal also spoke on the importance of wills and basic house-keeping like updating nominations for bank deposits, capital market instruments and in cooperative and housing assets that could save a lot of hardship to heirs and relatives.