Emirates NBD, a leading banking group in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey (MENAT) region, has revealed its plans to expand its operations in India after receiving approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to open two additional branches.
According to Emirates NBD, the bank will open a full-service branch in Gurugram and Chennai to cater to both the northern and southern markets of India. The announcement highlights the growing importance of the bank in India, as the UAE continues to strengthen long-standing strategic and economic ties with the South-Asian country.
The increased coverage will enable Emirates NBD to facilitate larger volumes of trade and capital flows between the two countries as well as the larger MENAT region. In 2017, the bank inaugurated its first full-fledged branch in Mumbai, marking the sixth country where the lender has an in-shore presence after UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Singapore, and the UK.
Hesham Abdulla Al Qassim Vice-Chairman & MD Emirates NBD
“As bilateral relations between the UAE and India continue to strengthen, Emirates NBD is delighted to expand its offering to Indian businesses and individuals looking to invest and do business in the MENAT region. In addition to a shared economic vision and compatible regional outlooks, the UAE and India are each other’s largest trading partners, positioning Emirates NBD as the only UAE-based bank with a physical presence across all of India’s important trade corridors across the MENAT region and through to Asia and the United Kingdom (UK).”
The Indian branch offers a range of services to corporate, small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) and institutional clients including trade finance, treasury services, bilateral and syndicated loans in addition to supporting NRI (non-resident Indian) customers looking for cross-border wealth management solutions.
Indians constitute the largest expatriate community in UAE and more than a third of Emirates NBD’s customer base are Indian expats. The bank‘s 60-second online funds transfer service to India, DirectRemit, has facilitated over $1.3 billion of NRI remittance flows to date this year.
