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Indian bank to operate in Afghanistan
Wednesday, 12 May 2004, 19:30 IST
NEW DELHI: India's state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB) will open a branch in Kabul in a month, the first Indian and third foreign bank to do so in the Afghan capital.
The external affairs ministry Tuesday gave the green signal to PNB to start banking operations in Afghanistan.
This followed a visit by a team of officials from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the finance ministry and the PNB to Kabul.
The PNB officials said this would be the bank's first full-fledged branch outside India. It has representative offices in London and Almaty, Kazakhstan, and plans to open offices in Shanghai and Dubai.
Most countries stipulate that foreign banks function as representative offices for a year or two before being permitted to open a branch, but Kabul has made an exception in the case of the PNB, the bank's overseas operations manager B.M. Sharma said.
Sharma told IANS: "There is a lot of reconstruction work going on in Afghanistan and a number of Indian companies are involved in it but there is no organised banking system available. We hope to fill that gap."
India has pledged more than $100 million in humanitarian, financial and project assistance to Afghanistan since the collapse of the Taliban regime in 2001. It has also gifted three Airbus aircraft, buses, trucks, medicines and wheat to Kabul.
Only two banks currently operate in Kabul - the Standard Chartered Bank and the Habib Bank of Pakistan.
Source: IANS
Source: IANS