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Singapore's
DBS Bank to expand operations in India
By
P. S. Suryanarayana
TIMES NEWS NETWORK-MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2005 11:50:49 PM
The
Hindu
SINGAPORE, APRIL 9. DBS
Bank, Singapore's flagship on the Asian scene of financial
services, is enthusiastic about expanding its banking
business in India.
Operating in Mumbai since
1994, first as a representative office and later as a
branch, DBS Bank has now secured a licence from the Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) to open a new branch in New Delhi.
With the Delhi branch expected to be "up and running''
before the end of the third quarter of 2005, DBS is hopeful
of "leveraging off''' its "unique niche position
in Asia,'' according to the bank's top officials.
Rajan Raju, DBS Managing
Director and Head of the bank's South and Southeast Asia
division, told The Hindu that "India is a good market
and it is a market that we think we can do well in.''
Outlining the expanding
profile of DBS in the Indian banking segments that cater
mainly to corporate entities and small-and-medium enterprises
(SME), Mr. Raju said "the focus last year was to
get into the external commercial borrowing (ECB) market,
and we got pretty aggressively into that market.''
With the total capital
invested by DBS in India being $122 million as of now,
another major area "we [have] worked on was to build
our treasury platform, our trade finance platform, and
we are in the process of building out a cash management
platform,'' he emphasised.
"Having got trade
and treasury, we went in and started doing domestic business
[in India] around trade finance flows,'' Mr. Raju said.
Such "significant
inroads'' in the Indian banking sector augured well for
the New Delhi branch which, according to Pranam Wahi,
DBS Chief Executive Officer for India, would "fast-track
our growth in corporate and SME banking.'' One of several
areas in India that DBS had now set its sights on was
investment banking services, inclusive of assistance to
domestic companies for entry into overseas markets.
Last year, "DBS was
ranked the Number Two Bookrunner for India-syndicated
loans by Thomson Financial after raising more than $440
million in over 13 issues.'' Mr. Wahi said "our exposures
are second to none'' in India. With a rating of the order
of "A+'' (S&P) and "Aa2'' (Moody's) and
a capital adequacy ratio of 15.8 per cent, DBS was now
at "mid-tier" among international banks in India,
Mr. Raju said. Moreover, DBS would spread its sails to
take advantage of the anticipated new winds of a "comprehensive
economic cooperation agreement" between India and
Singapore.
As for retail banking of
direct relevance to ordinary people in India, Mr. Raju
said DBS would venture into that area "over time".
He said "one of our core strengths'' in Singapore
was "mass market banking.'' Asked about the icing
on the cake for DBS in India, he drew attention to the
banking business in the SME sector. As for any potential
take-over in India, DBS would go by "what the RBI
allows us to do rather than what our aspirations are.''
Praising the "extremely professional'' RBI, he said
"they are technically very competent, ask the right
questions (and) guide us the right way".
In a global perspective,
Mr. Raju said, "DBS is an Asian bank in an Asian
time-zone, run by Asians,'' with the prime areas of operation
being the Singapore-ASEAN (Association of South East Asian
Nations) sector, the Hong Kong-Greater China region and
the Indian zone. About 70 per cent of the world's investible
assets were now reckoned to be in these segments, he emphasised.
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