A high-level Qatari delegation, led by Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of Qatar, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other government officials on Tuesday to press for the grant of a licence to Doha Bank to operate in India. The Indian government is learnt to have taken a sympathetic view on the demand, according to sources close to the development.
West Asia?s key money lender and Qatar?s third largest commercial bank, Doha Bank, has been in the race for securing an Indian licence since 2005.
Doha Bank had applied for an Indian banking licence way back in 2005, but policy constraints came in the way. In the wake of Indian government’s decision to grant more private bank licences in 2009, Doha Bank reapplied.
In an exclusive interview with FE, Doha Bank CEO R Seetharaman argued that now that the State Bank of India (SBI) has opened a business branch in Qatar, ?the problem of reciprocity has also been solved?. He said the Indian government had taken a stand that unless an Indian bank got a licence to operate in Qatar, the request for an Indian licence for Doha Bank could not be entertained. The Qatar Stock Exchange-listed bank is hopeful of getting a licence soon as both countries’ strong bilateral bonding is set to play a pivotal role. The Qatari government has picked up close to 17% in the bank by way of pumping in funds in 2008-09.
The Doha Bank has applied for licences in Saudi Arabia, Oman and Sri lanka, Australia and Hong Kong as well.”
Doha Bank already has a presence in India in the form of the Doha Brokerage and Financial Services, which offers a wide range of services, such as trading in stocks and derivatives, commodity futures, currency derivatives, mutual funds, portfolio management and depository services.
Seetharaman said, “We want to scale up the activities of the financial services arm in India. Recently, we launched institutional and personal lending, for which we got good response. More importantly, we are planning to rebrand our NBFC operations, which were there on a limited scale.”
It currently has tie-ups with Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank and State Bank group to channelise remittances to India. The bank recently switched to electronic e-commerce and launched a web portal, which acts as platform for traders and customers. Besides, it has got a licence for opening retail branches to sell its general insurance products under the Doha Bank Assurance Company, a 100% subsidiary of the bank.
On draft RBI guidelines on new banking licences, Seetharaman said that it was a welcome move. “The RBI has been very responsible and we expect more re-regulation.?
Doha Bank will be adopting a business model that focuses on corporate banking, treasury investment, international trade and SMEs as and when it starts its Indian operations. The bank, which currently has an annual R10,000-crore remittances to India through tie-ups with local banks, has plans to tap the corporates doing business in Gulf and the expatriate community in a big way.
The bank will be betting big on Indian corporates who have major business interests across Gulf regions . “Indian corporates have been playing bigger roles in the Gulf region in terms of energy-related investment and we want to support them. As we have presence in Kuwait and the UAE, apart from Dubai, it will be easy to cater to their needs in the region.” The bank will not be getting into retail banking as it is dominated by strong Indian banks.
Doha Bank had total assets of $14.43 billion as on December 2011 with a loan portfolio of $ 8.43 billion and deposit portfolio of 8.71 billion. Founded in 1975 in Doha, the bank has a client base of more than 1,50,000 customers and full branch operations in Qatar, New York, Kuwait and UAE. It also has representative offices in China, Turkey, Singapore, Romania, Japan, UK and South Korea.