Australia does a Britain, urges India to push banking reform

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New Delhi, Jan 18 : Two days after the United Kingdom asked India to open up its banking sector, Australia also made a similar demand, saying its banking and insurance majors are eagerly waiting to enter India and expand operations. Indian financial services sector is estimated to be worth over $50 billion.

In an interview to FE, Australian trade minister Simon Crean said ANZ Bank has applied for banking licence, while Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and others are keen to do well in India. “All Australian banks like a major presence in India. But at the moment they are limited in what they can do due to regulatory restrictions in India,” he said.

The minister, who on Wednesday held discussions with Reserve Bank of India deputy governor Rakesh Mohan, said, “We want to see continuing progress in the reforms to India’s financial service sector that will open up greater opportunities and the vision of that sector in the economy. We are interested to hear how the government proceeds with the next phase of reforms to the financial sector which are due to be considered before 2009,” he added.

Earlier, UK’s minister for trade and investment Digby Jones had demanded that more British banks must be permitted in India and existing ones should be allowed to expand networks.