RBL Bank taps Emirates NBD network to expand NRI banking, Gulf business
The private sector lender is working on a strategy to integrate corporate lending, international trade, NRI banking and remittances, seeking to capitalise on its new parent’s overseas presence to build businesses that were previously difficult to access.
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Subramaniakumar said the partnership had already demonstrated its potential through the bank’s mobilisation of foreign currency non-resident (FCNR-B) deposits under the Reserve Bank of India’s special swap window.
RBL Bank mobilised about $3.4 billion in FCNR(B) deposits, supported by Emirates NBD and its affiliates, and extended around ₹10,300 crore in loans against these deposits. It is currently developing an integrated banking proposition for corporate customers operating across India and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
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“We are looking at a simple model of one customer, two nations, one relationship,” Subramaniakumar said in an interview. “We will be able to work with them in India for originating the credit and fund them for growth and follow them internationally into the GCC.”The arrangement would also work in reverse, allowing businesses from GCC countries investing in India to access RBL Bank’s domestic banking services while maintaining their overseas banking ties through Emirates NBD, he said.
Another priority is developing banking services for NRIs who already transact with Emirates NBD, enabling them to manage their financial requirements in India through RBL Bank.
“We are building an enormous proposition so that we will be in a position to leverage the non-resident Indians who are banking with Emirates NBD,” he said. “Home banking can be done by them with us.”
RBL Bank has identified four potential business flows of trade, movement of people, capital, and remittances which it aims to capture through the partnership. These include financing bilateral trade, servicing Indian expatriates, facilitating overseas investments into India and tapping inward remittances from the Gulf, said Subramaniakumar.
The strategy could eventually extend beyond the Gulf to markets such as Singapore, Egypt, Turkey and the UK, where Emirates NBD has a presence.
Subramaniakumar said the overseas network would give RBL Bank access to relationships and transaction flows that would otherwise require considerably more time and resources to establish.
“Here the synergy is going to make us achieve enhanced and accelerated growth, which otherwise would have been a tough task,” he said.
