Abn Amro Plans To Tap Nri Cash

The Netherlands-based ABN Amro Bank plans to roll out a bouquet of schemes and instruments to tap non-resident Indians (NRIs) wealth, apart from increasing its focus on the wholesale business.

ABN Amro Bank senior executive vice-president, Jan Peter Schmittmann, said, "We are looking at a global citizen approach and plan to roll out a scheme by next year," Schmittmann said.

He said there are around 27 million NRIs, "which is a huge value proposition for us. We are looking at providing them schemes where they can bank from anywhere with us," he said.

Romesh Sobti, executive vice-president and chief executive for India of ABN Amro said the plan is to have an equal mix of retail as well as wholesale business.

 

At present, the commercial and the consumer business has a 30 per cent share, while the wholesale business has a 70 per cent share.

Before acquiring the retail business of Bank of America in 1999, the wholesale business constituted around 90 per cent of the business.

Schmittmann said ABN Amro was in talks with Indian private sector banks for acquisition for a bigger footprint in India.

The bank officials did not elaborate further, but it is learnt that certain banks based in south India are the key targets for acquisition.

"We are in talks with several of private sector banks for acquisition. What we are looking for is to either have a majority stake or management control," Schmittmann said.

He said if foreign banks have to grow in India, acquisitions were the only route. He said there was good response from the banks in India. "We are evaluating all the options. Sooner or later, acquisitions have to happen in India," he said.

Schmittmann said the bank would look at the following parameters for acquiring a bank in India. These are: Customer segment; branch network and good management skills.

Sobti said it did not require huge funds to acquire private banks in India. "However, we are looking for the value it will add instead of the money we may have to spend on acquiring the bank," he said.

Schmittmann said it will at least take six months once the talks are initiated for acquiring a bank. He said though banking regulations were not clear on acquisition of banks, foreign banks will have to apply to the Indian government to find out their reaction.

"We should or someone else will have to eventually apply to find out how the government reacts," he said.

Schmittmann said ABN Amro Bank is one of the first banks in the country to offer 365-day banking, apart from other specialised services. He said Bangalore will soon have an Internet banking cafe. The facility allows account holders to access all the services of the bank in an homely atmosphere.

"This concept will be a first in Asia and the bank intends to extend this to its other branches as well," he said.

He said ABN Amro will launch credit cards in association with Master Card International soon. Under this affiliation, ABN Amro Bank NV will issue a range of MasterCard credit card programmes including gold and standard credit cards and MasterCard electronic cards in India.