PNB gets RBI nod for Australian office

Punjab National Bank (PNB) today said it has received approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to open representative office in Australia.

In a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) the bank said it has received approval from the RBI to open a representative office in Sydney, Australia.

In a bid to expand overseas presence, PNB recently acquired a small-sized Dana Bank in Kazakhstan.

The bank also has plans to set up subsidiaries in Canada over the next one year and is looking at regions like South Africa, Indonesia and Ghana for expansion later on.

At present, the bank has branches in Hong Kong, Kabul and Dubai and representative offices in Shanghai.

It plans to upgrade the Shanghai representative office to a full-fledged branch over the next one year and has applied to open branches in Norway.

At present, the bank has four branches in Britain and also have joint venture operations in Nepal and Bhutan. It has a total branch strength of 4,836 across the globe.

The bank expects to raise the share of revenue from overseas business to 7 per cent over the next three years from 3.5 per cent now.