3 Banks Not To Shift Divisions
United Bank of India, UCO Bank and Allahabad Bank, headqaurtered in the city, will not shift their dealing rooms from the city to Mumbai, bank sources said.
The respective chiefs of the banks international divisions have categorically ruled out any shrinkage in Calcutta operations of the foreign exchange departments. Rajat Maity, chief of international banking division of UBI, said the bank had agreed in its board meeting last month to set up an extended arm of the Calcutta dealing room in Mumbai. Following the decision, the bank would set up an additional dealing room in Mumbai but the main dealing room would continue to be in the city.
He said UBIs Mumbai-based clients are complaining about not getting the best rates due to volatility in exchange rates. The banks extended dealing room in Mumbai would take care of the problem.
UBIs Calcutta dealing room, he said, was better equipped and the Mumbai office was not competent enough to handle forex transactions. J Ramachandran, chief manager of international banking division of Allahabad Bank said its main dealing room was in Mumbai with independent dealing rooms in Calcutta, Chennai and Delhi.
The bank, he said, would not dilute the business of Calcutta dealing room, which would remain functional as it was now. However, the bank had not studied the effect of SBIs proposed move to shift the forex department from Calcutta to Mumbai. He ruled out any impact of such a move on Allahabads bank business in the city. In the case of UCO Bank its deputy general manager of international banking P S Raghupati said the bank had not decided whether to shift its Calcutta dealing room.
Unlike SBI, the bank does not a have a main dealing room. Instead, there were four independent dealing rooms located in the four metropolitan cities. However, a senior UCO Bank official said if SBI shifted its foreign exchange division from Calcutta to Mumbai then the business volume in Calcutta might be affected.
The SBI management has decided to shift its foreign division from here to Mumbai to integrate its forex and treasury operations.