Banks in India: A burgeoning economy, financial sector reforms, rising foreign investment, favorable regulatory climate and demographic profile has led to India becoming one of the fastest growing banking market in the world.
The problems that India once faced, such as increasing external debt, balance of payment problems, insufficient value added exports, are all in the past. ICICI Bank, India’s largest private bank and one of India’s most tech-savvy and innovative firms, has assets that are worth over $100 billion. This is in part because of cashing in on huge market opportunities by harnessing 2 disruptive forces – globalization and technology evolution. There was $39 billion in announced deals in India during the first quarter of 2007, mostly because of overseas ambitions of Indian Companies.
As India’s pharmaceutical companies are expanding , and its conglomerates become more focused and growth continues for its technology companies, bankers here are saying they expect dozens more cross-border deals.
India has become known as Asia’s biggest home of billionaires and one of the world’s fastest breeders of millionaires. Private banks and fund managers find this very attractive. Recently Indian banks have capitalized on the Wall Street crisis. Before the crisis, many Indian banks lost employees to foreign banks for better paychecks and a global environment in which to operate. Now, they are all returning to India’s local firm’s more stable environment.
Bankers feel that India is a great investment destination. With India managing over $2 billion at the end of June, more than 20 funds investing overseas, they have more than quadrupled the amount they held two years ago, with only two such funds.
Indian Banks:
- State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank
- Indian Overseas Bank
- Jammu & Kashmir Bank Ltd.
- Karnataka Bank Ltd.
- Oriental Bank of Commerce
- Punjab and Sind Bank
Foreign Banks:
- Citi Bank, ABN Amro Bank
- HSBC Ltd, Standard Chartered
