Federal Bank, a leading private sector bank from India, will soon open at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) this year to provide banking services for trade and industries. Few months ago, it launched its second UAE representative office in Dubai and will make its debut in Bahrain also this year. This expansion is part of its larger strategy to expand footprints in the Gulf to serve its more than 800,000 fast growing overseas clients. The bank also plans to enter overseas markets in Qatar, Kuwait and Singapore.
One of the officials said "NRI franchise is the very backbone of our business model. Nearly 14.2 per cent of the almost $70 billion remittances go to India. This is mainly due to the partnerships of our bank with other banks and remittance agencies that enable any NRI in the Gulf to reach even his remotest village/town back in India". As far as the Gulf-India business corridor is concerned, Federal Bank is a partner of choice for investments from leading houses.
Federal Bank is one of the fastest-growing private sector banks at 25-30% balance sheet growth and accounting for over four per cent of Indian banking sector, seeks to function more as an extended family of the NRIs. Bank can remit in 12 different currencies. Increasing digitisation, including introduction of POS machines, facility to open accounts through a smartphone- Fedbook Selfie and 'Scan N Pay', an app that enables point-of-sale have added to the ease of services.
While Federal Bank is poised to increase the bandwidth and access of its products and services in the Gulf, it is also looking at expanding in Canada, Australia, the US and the UK- countries with a significant NRI population.
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