Banks globally have found their bottoms ripped off by the global meltdown Bank in emerging economies have have also suffered. It has, in fact, been an eye-opener for these countries? banking fraternity.

ICICI whose market capitalisation fell by 8.6% and HDFC Bank, which fell by 6%, were among those Indian firms listed on American bourses that incurred loss to the tune of $10 billion during the past one week alone. Now the most important lesson to be learnt for the Bric countries? banking community is be conservative in that follow strict rules while disbursing sub-prime loans and have thorough due diligence before finalising the loans. Another message for these countries from the US credit crunch may be to go aggressively for mutual cooperation.

Yet another major positive development for highly populous countries like India and China can be focus more attention to the domestic consumerism and generate more employment to their skilled youth which is coming up in the form of demographic dividend. For Russia, which has so far been to come out of the cocoon of being isolated from the global economy, it is quite important to integrate with other emerging economies, which the Bric boasts of. Says MD Mallya, chairman & managing director, Bank of Baroda, ?Our banking system is resilient enough and most of the Indian banks are not having much exposure to the foreign institutions?.

That India is concerned by the US banks? collapse is evident from the fact that a meeting of the high-level coordination committee on financial markets (HLCCFM), which is again a high level forum for interface among the financial sector regulators in the country, was held recently by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in the chairmanship of the RBI governor, D Subbarao, in Mumbai.

A delegation from Russia was in New Delhi between October 1-3, 2008 to discuss ?Russian banks in India? with their Indian counterparts. The event was jointly held by the central Bank of Russia and Indian Banks? Association (IBA). The 25-member delegation was led by Alexey Chernov, deputy director of department, Bank of Russia. The event assumes special dimension in the backdrop of the global financial crisis. Both the countries are coming forward for strengthening their bilateral relationship. On Russian part, VTB Bank which has opened its branch in New Delhi in July this year. Some of the other Russian banks that are waiting in wings for having their presence in India include Sberbank, which is looking for opening a rep office, and Russian Promsvyazbank which has evinced its interest for having a branch in India. On the Indian side, country?s largest lender, State Bank of India and second largest ICICI Bank have already anchored their bases through subsidiaries in Russia.

Some of the other banks like state-owned Punjab National Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce have plans to expand their operations to Russia in near future. Similar is the case with other Bric countries. To enunciate it, small-sized state-run banks like Corporation Bank, which has recently made its mark of going abroad by opening a representative office at Dubai, has also applied for opening its rep office at Shanghai and London.

The Indian banks are looking at Shanghai to tap its potential of trade finance, whereas the Hong Kong was more known for increasing international business. The biggest Chinese bank, ICBC, has plans to expand its operations in India. Gangzhou is yet another province in China, where the Indian banks are trying hard to have their presence. For example, Bank of Baroda, which has opened its full-fledged branch in the Gangzhou province of China during August.

Ironically, there was no much development on the front of Indo-Brazil banking relationship. It is surprising in the wake of constantly increasing trades between the two countries, particularly within past couple of years. Both India and Brazil share a good number of features with each other. According to a FICCI study, among Mercosur member countries (a Customs Union between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela), Brazil, in particular, offers great investment opportunities for banking and financial services.

Moreover, trade between India and Brazil has been growing exceptionally in the last few years. In 2005-06, India?s export to Brazil was $ 1.09 billion and import from Brazil was $ 893.06 million, a nearly four-fold increase between the two countries since 2000-01. Brazilian ministry of industry, development & foreign trade has considered India as among the key countries of immediate business potential. Russia and China are among two other countries having this honour. Brazilian ambassador to India, Jose Vicente Pimentel says, ?India and Brazil have only just begun their honeymoon?.?

Here the moot question arises that if countries like India, Brazil and China can concertedly exchange parleys against western developed countries for the sake of third world agriculture at forum like World Trade Organisation, then why cannot they join their hands in the banking sector too.

If Russia is said to have affected to the tune of $50 billion thanks to the ongoing global credit crunch, so was India, albeit in a lesser magnitude. The problem lies in Russia being isolated from the rest of the world economies as it does not allow derivative or structured products to be sold on its soil. But, Russian bankers do believe that isolation is not the solution as one has to increase interaction with others.

Although, unlike India, which is quite seriously implementing Basel II norms, the same has not been adopted by Russia so far. Still, it has got its own certain internal risk measures as prescribed by the banking regulator. The idea behind going for Basel II norms being to make the system sound and give confidence among the global banks to do business with you. Nevertheless Chenoa claims that, ?We are more regulated.?

Meanwhile, according to an AFP report, the head of China?s second largest lender China Construction Bank, Guo Shuqing says the bank was wary of investing in Wall Street and would consider emerging markets before those hard-hit by the financial crisis.

?You may find cheapies everywhere on Wall Street, but is there any point in buying them? If you find out there are problems with the assets purchased, you will have to make write-downs and they are not so cheap any more,? he says.