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Surendran, left, speaking at a press conference yesterday as Vijayakumar looks on. PICTURE: Jayan Orma |
India’s Federal Bank which will soon become the first Indian private sector bank to start operations in the region with the opening of its branch at the Dubai International Financial Centre, has set a target of 150,000 non-resident Indian (NRI) customers from Qatar, in the next couple of years.
Informing this yesterday at The Diplomatic Club, additional general manager and head of the international banking of Kerala-headquartered bank, A Surendran said the bank already has over 500,000 NRI customers from the region, and out of which about 70,000 customers are from Qatar alone.
“We expect a rise in the remittances to Federal Bank in coming years from Qatar which is witnessing unprecedented development in different sectors,” he said, adding: “As part of the bank’s expansion exercise, two of its staffers are posted in a Doha Bank and a money exchange.”
The bank has more than 5mn customer base.
In Qatar, the bank has money remittance arrangements with as many as 13 exchanges.
The senior banker, accompanied by the bank’s UAE – based chief representative K R Vijayakumar, is on a tour “TogetherVgather” where they are meeting customers of the bank in Qatar and Kuwait.
The official said that nearly one-third of the total of the bank’s Rs800bn worth business is from the NRIs and of the total deposits of the bank, more than 25% are from the NRIs, mainly those in the GCC states.
Surendran said Federal Bank, which is the largest old generation private sector bank in India, is expected to cross Rs1,000bn business mark in less than a couple of years and the 1000th branch of bank would be opened in March 2012.
“Currently we are through a massive expansion pace and the bank has 838 branches and 878 ATMs as of today. Recently on a single day in October, which incidentally coincided with the birth anniversary celebrations of our founder, we started 66 branches. Incidentally, we completed 66 years of service on that day,” recalled the official.
He said Federal Bank has also launched a scheme “Remit and Retain” under which those depositing and retaining a minimum of Rs100,000 for a period of 45 days would be rewarded incentives.
The bank has also introduced attractive redeemable points programme for those swapping their debit card for a minimum transaction of Rs100 every time. The bank has also launched Utsav Reward points for the usage of the ATM cards which could be redeemed against the purchase of a range of products and services, said the banker.
‘Signature’ branch at Tiruvalla soon
India’s Federal Bank will soon open a state-of-the-art ‘signature’ branch at Tiruvalla in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district.
Informing this yesterday, the bank’s additional general manager and head of international banking A Surendran said the new branch would have a lot of firsts targeting the bank’s NRI customers from across the state.
“A dedicated team of relationship officers to take care of the customers’ requirements have already been appointed at the new branch which will start functioning soon,” he said.
The decision to start a ‘signature’ branch was made owing to the huge flow of NRI remittances to the bank’s branches in and around Tiruvalla, he said.
The banker also said the branch would also provide “pick up and dropping” facilities to its customers among other facilities.
One more ‘signature’ branch of bank would also be opened, near the Cochin International Airport complex in Nedumbassery in coming months.
The bank has already taken possession of a space at the Cochin airport to take care of the boarding and lodging requirements of its customers travelling out and flying into the country, he said.