Public sector lender Bank of India (BoI) will strengthen its presence in foreign territories by opening six branches, one each in Canada, Brazil, New Zealand, South Africa, Botswana and Uganda.
While the branches in Canada, New Zealand and Uganda are expected to open soon, offices in other countries will take some time due to time consuming regulatory approvals.
"We have filed papers to open a branch in Canada, and expect to open it very soon and same is the case with branches in New Zealand and Uganda," said B A Prabhakar, executive director, Bank of India.
"In South Africa we are upgrading our representative office to a full fledge branch," said Prabhakar.
The bank had posted a revenue of R17,878 crore in 2009-10. The bank currently has 29 offices outside India, 25 of which are branches and rest are representative offices while in India it has a strong network of 3,207 branches.The bank is taking subsidiary route to expand its presence. "The new branches will function as a wholly owned subsidiaries," said Prabhakar. So the branch in New Zealand will be known as Bank of India, New Zealand.
"There are lots of Indians residing in the areas where we are planning to open branches. They are our target customers," he said.
{{/usCountry}}"There are lots of Indians residing in the areas where we are planning to open branches. They are our target customers," he said.
{{/usCountry}}Some of the Indian Banks are already present in these areas and are doing good business. ICICI Bank has branch in Canada while Bank of Baroda has branch in Uganda.