Indian Banks

ABN AMRO will be renamed as Royal Bank of Scotland and will be operated as RBS which has recently bought the Deutshe Bank for Euro 71 billion. ABN Amro is one of the leading foreign banks in India and has currently covers 30 to 40 percent revenue from India. Taking ABN AMRO’s strong presence in India, Royal Bank of Scoltand aims to become one of the India’s top foreign bank. ABN Amro bank’s country executive Meera H Sanyal has said that the transformation of ABN Amro to RBS will be achieved smoothly and there would not be any any radical change in strategy but, it will be based on the existing strengths combined with those of RBS’s verticals.

As a next step of transformation Sanyal said that the bank would continue to strongly focus on corporate finance, the mid-market or SME segment( In which they are very strong), financial institutions, the financial sponsors segment and consumer finance.

Elaborating on the bank’s plans in the SME segment, Sanyal said that it constituted a growing business in the future and “offered the bank an opportunity to partner with global companies of the future.”

Popularity: 3% [?]

State Bank of India’s board gave it’s go ahead to the merger of State bank of Saurashtra (SBS) with itself subject to the approval of the Government and Reserve Bank of India in accordance with State Bank of India Act,1955.

State Bank of India Managing Director T.S.Bhattacharya said State Bank of Saurashtra is the smallest of the other seven associates(State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Indore and State Bank of Patiala.) of SBI and based on this experience we will look to restructure the whole group.

SBS has 460 branches and the merger would help eliminate duplication of branches in the same area.The merger would help SBI consolidate its position as India’s biggest bank and widen the gap with nearest rival ICICI Bank. With 9,579 branches, SBI has total assets of Rs 5,66,565 crore and posted a net profit of Rs 4,541 crore as on March 31, 2007. ICICI Bank had assets of Rs 3,44,658 crore and posted a net profit of Rs 3,110 crore in 2006-07.

Popularity: 4% [?]

The Reserve Bank of India has sanctioned the Scheme of Amalgamation of Lord Krishna Bank Ltd. with Centurion Bank of Punjab Ltd. The Scheme has been sanctioned in exercise of the powers contained in Sub-section (4) of Section 44A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. The Scheme will come into force with effect from August 29, 2007. All the branches of Lord Krishna Bank Ltd. will function as branches of Centurion Bank of Punjab Ltd. with effect from August 29, 2007.

The merger will add Rs 300 crore to Central Bank of  Punjab’s balance sheet, which is around Rs 18,480 crore at present, and another 112 branches to its current 279 branches. CBoP plans to add more than 200 branches by December 2007.

Popularity: 2% [?]