Abn Amro Plans Amc Next Fiscal

ABN Amro Bank is planning to set up an asset management company (AMC) in the first quarter of the next calendar year. The Dutch bank, in a new retail thrust, will soon be launching a credit card and also plans to tie up with a domestic solutions provider for a retail banking operating system. The bank is also tying up with an insurance company to market life and non-life products through its network.

ABN Amro Bank's executive vice-president and chief executive officer Romesh Sobti said: "We are planning to launch an AMC by the first quarter of 2001. The AMC will start off with a debt fund and at a later stage will launch an equity fund too. The application with the Securities & Exchange Board of India is pending." "We have not finalised the plans on the corpus and other nitty-gritty," Sobti said.

ABN Amro had acquired the retail business of Bank of America adding around 1,70,000 customers mostly from the middle and upper middle class. The bank plans to invest around $5 million on a new retail banking operating system.

"We are implementing a new operating system which will offer users additional facilities such as Internet banking and wireless application protocol (WAP) facilities. We are launching a pilot project for the payment gateway in a month's time," Sobti said.

On being queried about ABN Amro Bank's decision to review its retail operations in 26 countries, Sobti said: "The bank will spend over Rs 50 crore for expanding its branch and ATM network in India along with launching a credit card. India is too big a market to ignore and we are reviewing our operations in markets which do not have a critical mass. "

The bank has its presence in six locations -- four metroes besides Pune and Baroda. It plans to open branches in four more locations including Hyderabad, Bangalore and Ludhiana.

"We need to have a critical mass of ATMs to service our customers. By the end of the year we will increase our ATM network to 50 from 29. We can also leverage on the benefits of the shared payment networks system (SPNS)," Sobti said.