SINGAPORE: Indian Overseas Bank is seeking to raise its profile in China, Singapore, and Malaysia through specific strategies, according to IOB Chairman and Managing Director M. Narendra.
IOB Mr. Narendra said on Thursday, had now applied for scaling up its representative office in China to the status of an offshore-banking branch. With such an upgrade, IOB would have “permission to do some limited operations in terms of the local Chinese currency also,” said Mr. Narendra, now in Singapore for the bank's platinum jubilee celebrations abroad.
Without indicating a timeline for the bank's new agenda in China, he said “the Reserve Bank of India has to give permission first.” IOB Executive Director Nupur Mitra said “we are eligible [for offshore-banking] as per China's rules.”
IOB was zeroing in on Shanghai for such a branch, given that city's international exposure, she said. The bank's existing representative office in China had completed five years, surpassing the minimum timeline required to graduate to offshore-banking in that country.
Expressing satisfaction over IOB's ‘fairly good operations' in Singapore for nearly seven decades, Mr. Narendra said “we are proposing to have one more remittance centre, subject to regulatory approval here.”
Two remittance centres, started in recent years, were now in operation, in addition to the 70-year-old branch. To meet the needs of non-resident Indians, one more remittance kiosk would be opened here later this week.
With a good profit portfolio in Singapore, compared to IOB's significant presence in Hong Kong, the bank was now engaged in a cost-benefit evaluation of the feasibility of seeking a ‘qualified full banking licence' here. Mr. Narendra said “we are now very active in international loan syndication here, with our recent success in raising $500 million in a medium-term loan.”
In Malaysia, IOB's joint venture with Bank of Baroda and Andhra Bank, in the name and style of India International Bank may be launched in July or August. IOB, whose individual presence in Malaysia was earlier interrupted at the time of the bank's nationalisation, would now have a 35 per cent stake, at $35 million, in the new joint venture, which was being set up as a Malaysia-origin banking firm, Mr. Narendra emphasised. This would, in a sense, address Malaysia's now-softened opposition to hosting banks owned by foreign governments.
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