Standard Chartered Bank is upbeat on growing its transaction banking business in India and well positioned to tap the opportunities being offered by the country as a a popular manufacturing hub, said Kashinath Hariharan,the lender’s transaction banking MD for India and South Asia.
He further said though his bank has not been included for the Reserve Bank of India’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot, it is keen on offering the product to its customers.
“Transaction banking significantly augments corporates’ business by creating a stable, granular and capital light revenue stream across payments and trade,” Hariharan stressed.
The MD said over the years the foreign lender has made significant investments in its technology platforms. He, however, did not share the quantum of investments made.
Presently, the bank’s transaction banking programmes include blue chip companies, startups, new-age firms and public sector institutions, he said.
The lender offers corporate services such as information technology-enabled solutions, shared service centres to manage regulatory filings, IATA pay for airlines or smart contract for real estate business. It also handles over a million trade transactions annually, he claimed.
“With all these capabilities, the bank is well positioned to harness the opportunity presented in India on account of its growing popularity as an alternate mainstream manufacturing hub,”the MD said.
When asked about the shrinking presence of foreign banks in India, the MD said as far as Standard Chartered Bank is concerned, India is among the top performing markets for it.
Today, the bank is present across retail and corporate banking segments and has built strong client relationships, he said.
Hariharan also said almost 70% of API volumes of Standard Chartered globally are coming from India on account of rising digitisation.
“By and large, APIs are being used predominantly in the payments space by corporates, however, we see other areas like collection and trade also picking up momentum,” the MD said.
He also said while the bank is not a part of the RBI’s digital currency pilot as of now, it is keen on adopting and offering the product to its customers once the modalities it are crystallised.
“The CBDC is relatively new and use-cases are being developed and tested by the regulator along with a few banks. We have to see how this pans out as a significant level of digitisation on retail side has already taken place through UPI,”the MD said.