Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) has at last obtained authorization from RBI to recommence its Indian operations after 10 years. The group intends to establish its first branch in India in Mumbai within a year.
The bank is expecting a pretax profit of A$100 million ($90.50 million) from its Indian operations in the next 3-4 years.
ANZ is the 4th biggest bank in Australia and intends to earn big profits from the second fastest growing economy in the world, India.
Alex Thursby, ANZ CEO Asia Pacific, Europe and America said, “India is a real market of substance. I am confident it will give us a good part of the A$1.5 billion 2012 targeted profit from Asia”.
10 years back ANZ had to leave the Indian market after selling its possessions to Standard Chartered Bank. The main reason for its exit was its participation in the Harshad Mehta scam, one of the largest scams in the Indian stock market. The bank, then known as ANZ Grind lays Bank was the 2nd biggest foreign bank in the country.
But the Indian market situation has changed drastically since then. Now the markets are very much regulated. About 75% of the Indian market is controlled by government-run banks, while top foreign banks like Citigroup, Standard Chartered and HSBC hold a big chunk of corporate lending.
ANZ intends to concentrate on institutional lending and the mining and agricultural sector, Thursby said.