Union Bank of India is planning an aggressive push for its overseas business. With Indian companies, especially in the pharma, automotive and IT sector, setting up entities overseas or taking over local companies there, the public sector lender is expanding to support their growth.
By its centenary year (that is 2019), the bank expects its overseas business to account for 10% of its total business from 4.7% at the end of the third quarter ended December 2014.
On Friday, finance minister Arun Jaitley inaugurated the bank's first overseas subsidiary, Union Bank. of India UK. Speaking on the occasion, the finance minister said, "The larger public sector banks like Union Bank of India are becoming multinational." He added that banks in India were contributing to social and infrastructure sectors of the economy as well.
Arun Tiwary, chairman and managing director, Union Bank of India, told dna, "We plan to expand our overseas business by increasing our branch network in geographies where there is a larger Indian presence. We are currently undertaking a survey to open more branches in Africa. Our Sydney representative office will be converted into a full-fledged branch."
Other Indian banks with UK subsidiary include ICICI Bank, Punjab National Bank and Axis Bank. State Bank of India, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Syndicate Bank and Canara Bank also have their overseas branches.
Indians form about 2 million of the total population of 62 million population in the UK and contribute to over 6% of the country's GDP encouraging banks to have a strong presence in UK
Union Bank of India (UK) Ltd will undertake retail and wholesale banking with focus on current, savings, fixed term deposits and remittances in the retail banking space. In the wholesale banking, the focus will be on syndicated loans, external commercial borrowings, SMEs, trade finance facilities and current accounts.
The bank has a strong presence in India with 4,000 branches, 6,700 ATMs and an asset base of $59 billion.
