Indian banks ready for foreign operations
Mumbai, July 6: Aiming to tap the fast-growing NRI and corporate financing business overseas, a host of Indian banking majors including the country’s largest lender, State Bank of India, are planning to enhance their overseas presence this fiscal.
State Bank of India (SBI), which recently received the Singapore monetary authority’s approval to set up 25 branches, is on the final stages of setting up offices. SBI is planning to set up three branches in the initial phase and would focus more on NRI remittance and corporate lending business among other services, SBI’s chief general manager, Mr T.C.A. Ranganathan, said.
"We are presently engaged in the site-selection process to set up the new offices and the branches are expected to get operational in the coming few months," Mr Ranganathan, said.
SBI has 84 foreign offices in 32 countries. Leading private-sector lender, HDFC Bank, also plans to ramp up its overseas operations. The bank has received all necessary regulatory approvals to set up a branch in Bahrain.
"The Bahrain branch is ready to function and we expect it to be operational by August. We are planning many new offices this fiscal," an HDFC official said.
The lender is understood to have plans to set up a branch in Hong Kong and a representative office in Kenya, he said. HDFC Bank already have representative offices in Dubai and Toronto.
Country’s largest private sector lender, ICICI Bank plans to open four new offices in the US, which would come up in California, New Jersey, Texas and Illinos.
ICICI Bank is present in 18 countries and had forayed into the US by setting up an office in New York.
Many Indian banks, both in the private and public sectors, are now increasingly expanding their operations to overseas locations to garner more revenues.
Similarly, banks are also seeing high business potential in lending to small and medium-sized corporates by issuing Credit Linked Notes (CLNs) and the like on behalf of Indian corporates.
Leading state-owned lenders like Punjab National Bank (PNB), Bank of Baroda and Bank of India have also chalked out plans to scale-up their overseas presence. While PNB plans to set up branches in Shanghai and Norway, a subsidiary in Canada and a representative office in Singapore this fiscal, the lender also plans to upgrade its existing repo office in Dubai, PNB’s Executive Director, Mr J.M. Garg, said.
Leading state-owned lenders, BoB and BoI have also announced their plans to set up 10 overseas offices each this fiscal.
BoI has scheduled its foray to countries such as Cairo, Australia, New Zeland, Cambodia and Vietnam and would also open a repo office in Dubai.
"As the bank is growing its size, there is a need for a strong international presence. We expect to open around 10 new branches this fiscal, its executive director, Mr K.R. Kamath, said.
Besides, the lender has also started the process to set up a subsidiary in Canada, the director said. — PTI