UTI aims at 0 mln book assets from Dubai branch

Dubai, Apr 5 (UNI) UTI Bank has opened its first office in Dubai and hopes to achieve more than 650 million dollars worth of book assets in its first year of operations here.

The bank will offer its services to individual customers with more than one million dollars in liquid assets and corporate clients with more than five million dollars, said UTI Chairman and Managing Director P J Nayak.

UTI Bank is registered at the Dubai International Finance Centre (DIFC), but regulations restrict it to servicing high net worth clients with liquid assets of more than one million dollars and companies with assets exceeding five million dollars.

The DIFC permit allows UTI, the third largest Indian private sector bank, to provide retail banking services to ''accredited customers''.

''We met the UAE Central Bank on Tuesday and were told there may be a change in policy on foreign banks' retail operations in the UAE,'' Mr Nayak was quoted by local press as saying.

He said UTI here would focus on providing corporate convertible bonds, international cash management, wealth and risk management and financing infrastructure projects.

It will focus on utilising its existing relationships with Indian companies here before expanding its services to non-Indian corporate clients.

UTI has also linked up with three UAE money exchanges, plus RAK Bank and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank to expand remittance services.

Mr Nayak said Indian nationals here are sending home remittances to UTI branches worth 40 million dollars every month representing eight per cent of the total remittances in 2006.

Up to 20,000 UAE-based Indians have accounts with UTI, which have combined fixed deposits of 140 million dollars (Dirham 514 million).

UNI