Indusind Bank ties up with UNB of UAE, gets RBI nod for new branches

Mumbai, Apr 24 (UNI) Indusind Bank Ltd has received Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) nod for opening 11 new branches.

Informing the BSE, the Bank's Managing Director and CEO Bhaskar Ghose said, ''We received permission to convert the first tranche of 52 branches of the erstwhile Ashok Leyland Finance (ALF) immediately after ALF was merged with our Bank. After our successful conversion of those 52 branches, RBI has now granted us permission to open 11 new branches in under-banked centres.

We hope to receive RBI's approval for a further set of branch licenses for which our application has been made under Reserve Bank's Branch Authorization Policy.'' That will substantially boost its branch network and give it the requisite retail muscle. Five of the 11 new branches have already started operations. The other six branches should commence operations within the next few weeks, said Mr Ghose.

As on March 31, this year, the bank has a total of 137 branches, well spread over the country. In addition, the bank also has 8 extension counters and 83 off-site ATMs, and a representative office each in Dubai and London.

It also has tie-ups in place with the State Bank group, MITR consortium, Corporation Bank and UTI Bank for the use of 13000 ATMs for bank customers.

On the international front, the bank recently announced a strategic alliance with Union National Bank (UNB), Abu Dhabi. The strategic alliance will encompass a wide range of banking services, including deposit accounts, remittance business, loans, wealth management advisory, distribution of third party products, trade finance, global banking, and investment banking including corporate finance.

Through this alliance, both banks will focus primarily on the business opportunities generated by Non-Resident Indians in the UAE.

The bank and UNB will treat each other as preferred partners with reciprocity of business flows and promotion of each other's banking services.

''Apart from this initiative, seventeen exchange houses from the UAE, Kuwait and Oman have entered into arrangements with the bank to provide convenient, cost-effective, and quick funds transfer facilities to NRIs,'' informed Ghose.

The bank also caters to the other banking and financial needs of expatriate Indians through NRE and FCNR deposits, e-broking, direct investment in Mutual Funds, and other related third-party distribution products and services.

''We expect increased growth in the financial year 2006-2007, triggered by our retail expansion in under-banked centres and by our international tie-ups. We expect to capitalise on our ties with our international stakeholders through exclusive alliances with foreign banks,'' added Ghose.

The bank has also increased its NRE Deposit rate for a period of one to two years from 6.04 per cent to 6.29 per cent per annum, following the recent announcement of RBI's Credit Policy for 2006-07.

The Indusind Bank has been named 'India's Most Productive Bank' for 2004-05 in the recently-released survey of banks in India, undertaken annually by Business Today and KPMG. It has also won the Banking Technology Award- 'Outstanding Achiever of the Year 2005 - Corporate' (Runner Up), an award instituted jointly by Indian Banks Association (IBA), Finacle (Infosys) and TFCI (Trade Fair and Conference International) to honour outstanding achievements in banking technology.

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