Friday, Oct 24, 2008
Gulf News
Muscat: One of India's largest public sector banks, Bank of Baroda (BoB) is planning to open 10 more overseas branches by 2009, including in the GCC region, according to M.D. Mallaya, the bank's chairman and managing director.
"By next year we hope to open our first branch in Qatar," said Mallaya, who was visiting the Gulf region as part of the bank's centenary celebrations.
He added that one branch in Oman's fast developing port city Sohar getting clearance was imminent. "We are ready to open the branch as soon as we get clearance from the Reserve Bank of India," he said. He also added that the bank was considering the other towns like Nizwa in Oman for more BoB branches.
"We have already started operations in Bahrain to make our presence in the GCC region strong," he added. The BoB chief said that rupee depreciation had indeed increased remittances back to Indian substantially in the recent times but added: "It would be too early to quantify these remittances."
He also denied that the recent global equity crisis as well as troubles in banking sectors had had any impact on BoB, which has presence in 25 countries worldwide.
"Our risk management policies are robust, therefore there's no impact whatsoever on us [BoB] of the current global crisis.
In reply to a question he said that the introduction of technology and rapid fund transfer had helped increase business for the bank, especially in the Gulf region. "With no charges and instant account-to-account transfer, customers are happy to use our facilities." BoB's overseas operations are through 72 branches spread over 25 countries.
Gulf News 2008. All rights reserved.
