IndusInd Bank seeks tie-up with UAE banks

DUBAI - IndusInd Bank, a leading Indian private sector bank will open its representative office in Dubai this year and is negotiating with a few UAE-based banks for potential tie-up.

By Babu Das Augustine

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Published: Thu 17 Apr 2003, 1:02 PM

Last updated: Wed 1 Apr 2015, 7:41 PM

Bhaskar Ghose, managing director, IndusInd Bank said: "We have received Finance Ministry's permission to set up two overseas offices, one in Dubai and another in London. We have a natural advantage in both these cities because of the fairly large concentration of NRIs who are either investors and customers of our bank. We intend to leverage on these advantages and expand our presence in the retail and corporate banking business in both these cities."

IndusInd's Dubai office is expected to be operational by August this year. The bank is also negotiating with a few local and regional banks for marketing tie-ups. "We are talking to relatively smaller local and regional banks for mutually beneficial tie-ups. While these tie-ups can enhance our distribution network in the UAE and the region, our local partners can benefit from the large number of high networth NRI clients we have in the Gulf and elsewhere." he added. IndusInd Bank has a large number of NRI customers across 40 countries. Currently, the bank offers a host of NRI-focused deposits, investment products and portfolio management schemes.

The bank is aggressively expanding its network of distribution points in India. It currently has 126 outlets including 63 full-fledged branches. The Bank plans to expand its business through selective acquisitions and has targeted a total of 200 outlets including branches, extension counters and off-site ATMs by the end this year.

The bank has been expanding its asset base through asset acquisitions. Last year it took over Rs10 billion ($200 million) worth assets from ICICI Bank, another Indian private bank which sold assets to cover its statutory liquidity ratio requirements (SLR). Currently the bank has an asset base of more than Rs120 billion ($2.5 billion).

"We are fast expanding our asset base through selective acquisition of quality assets. In many cases we are acquiring corporate and retail assets from banks which fall short of their mandatory capital adequacy ratios and are compelled to sell assets," Ghose said.

On the mergers and acquisition front, he said the bank is not shy about acquiring a bank or non-banking finance company, if its asset portfolios match the bank's own assets and business priorities. "We are primarily focusing on high quality short term assets. The long term assets including housing finance can be problematic for commercial banks because of the potential asset-liability mismatch. So our acquisitions are fairly conservative as far as the tenure and quality of the assets are concerned," he said.

The Bank has recently launched its interactive Internet banking services to increase the delivery channels both for resident and non-resident account holders. New tie-ups for distribution of Life and Non-Life Insurance products, special products for high networth individuals and the launch of Debit Cards are in the offing.


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