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ICICI Bank eyes Gulf NRIs through Dubai office
Thursday, 02 October 2003, 19:30 IST
DUBAI: ICICI Bank, one of India's largest banks, has opened its representative office here with an eye on garnering business from the large expatriate community in the Gulf.
With this, two Indian banks have representative offices in Dubai, the other being HDFC Bank. Bank of Baroda is the only Indian bank that has full-fledged operations here.
K.V. Kamath, the bank's managing director and CEO, and Lalita Gupte, joint managing director opened the office Wednesday.
According to Kamath, ICICI Bank is expected to double the number of accounts in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), develop further trade business and offer a wider range of products here and in India in partnership with banks it was cooperating with across the world.
Gupte said ICICI Bank would look at the possibility of opening a full-fledged branch if the regulatory situation made that possible.
The Dubai representative office will provide links for companies in both the home and host countries having business relations in the region and will increase the bank's participation in India's trade transactions with the UAE and Gulf markets.
The bank has a strategic tie-up with Emirates Bank and hopes to market a series of financial products jointly with the leading UAE bank as well as enjoy a long standing trade financing relationship with the Dubai Bank.
With this milestone, ICICI Bank has increased its international presence. It has an Offshore Banking Branch in Singapore.
The Bank also has representative offices in New York and London. It is in the process of setting up a subsidiary in Toronto, Canada, and a representative office in Shanghai, China.
ICICI Bank has appointed Nimesh Shah, joint general manager, as the country head of its Dubai operations.
India's largest bank, the State Bank of India, is also keen on opening a branch here but its application has been lying with the UAE Central Bank for several years.
Earlier, a senior SBI official said it plans to open offices in the UAE and other Gulf countries to increase its presence in the region as it focuses on its core ethnic business.
Indrajit Gupta, chief general manager (foreign operations) and deputy managing director designate of SBI, on a visit to Dubai said the bank had applied for permission to open branches in the UAE and other Gulf countries.
HDFC of India has also tied up with the Abu Dhabi-based New Medical Centre (NMC) Group of companies in a bid to extend its reach to non-resident Indian (NRI) clients.
Source: IANS
Source: IANS