State Bank of Travancore to set up rep office in Dubai

Dubai, Feb 28 (UNI) State Bank of Travancore, which has made its presence in the UAE as a leading money exchange operator, plans to open a representative office in Dubai, its Managing Director K Sitaraman said.

''We have applied for the licence and the Central Bank is considering it,'' he said.

SBT, which has a network of 700 branches, including 550 in Kerala, currently manages five money exchanges in the UAE under the brand name City Exchange and another two in Oman under the title Global Money Exchange.

Besides, it has rupee drawing arrangements with 16 exchange houses in West Asia, Khaleej Times reported.

Plans are under way to open two more branches of City Exchange within a year in the UAE, home to nearly 2,50,000 non-resident Indians (NRIs) from Kerala, he said.

Mr Sitaraman, who was in the UAE to meet Sultan bin Nasser Al Suwaidi, Governor of the UAE Central Bank, said for the year ended on December 31,2006, SBT recorded total business worth Rs 53,000 crore, marking a 16 per cent surge in deposits and 21 per cent growth in advances to join the league of middle-level banks in the country.

In the previous year, it recorded total business of over Rs 45,000 crore.

UNI