Doha Bank to go WOS route as it eyes faster expansion

The Qatari lender Doha Bank will be applying to operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary (WOS) here and is keen to expand its presence to 12 more locations once it gets the Reserve Bank nod.
"Our long-term plan is to make a subsidiary in India and we have informed the RBI about it as well. I think we will take up to three years to turn ourselves into a WOS," chief executive R Seetharaman told reporters here today.
He said the bank will be applying to its Qatari regulator in the next two-three months, which will have a detailed statement on the need to become a WOS, including a business plan.

Once it receives the go-ahead from its home regulator, it will go ahead and apply to RBI.
Doha Bank, which entered the country in April 2015 and runs three branches now, has also prepared an expansion plan once it turns into a WOS, he said.
Though since 2010, the RBI has been encouraging banks to work as a WOS rather than as a branch or representative office, so as to protect the domestic financial sector from global factors in times of stress, it has not granted anyone such a licence so far.

Singaporean lender DBS, State Bank of Mauritius and three others have also applied to RBI for a WOS lincences, but none has got it so far. None of the major foreign banks are ready to convert their operations into a WOS.

Doha Bank plans to add 12 more branches as part of the first phase of this expansion and six each in the second and third phases, he said.
The chief executive said the bank is not keen to limit
Its presence in the metros and large urban centres, and will be keen to expand into tier-II centres as well where it sees opportunities through the Indo-Gulf trade.
This is the reason why one of its branches is in Kochi, which is aimed specifically to cater to the remittances market, he said, adding it handled Rs 3,200 crore of remittances last year.

The bank has invested USD 50 million in the country till now, and has a deposit base of Rs 1,000 crore and a fund and non-fund based credit exposure of Rs 600 crore, he said.
If the advances given to Indian companies abroad are included, the overall exposure is USD 1 billion, he said.
Seetharaman said two of its brnaches are courtesy its acquisition of HSBC Oman's network and hinted that it may relocate one of them based in Mumbai, as it is within a kilometre of its own branch.
He said India represents one of the best opportunities of growth in a gloomy world and the bank is committed to the country.