J.P. Morgan Gets Nod to Set Up Three New Branches in India
July 01 2016 - 10:19AM
Dow Jones News
By Shefali Anand
MUMBAI -- J. P. Morgan Chase & Co. has received approval
from India's banking regulator to set up three new branches in the
country, the company said in a statement Friday.
"We have a great commitment to this country," said Kalpana
Morparia, chief executive for South & South East Asia, J.P.
Morgan, in an interview.
The bank currently has one branch in India, in Mumbai. Ms.
Morparia said that the new branches will enable the bank to better
service its existing clientele, which includes multinational
companies and Indian firms which have international trade
links.
The U.S. bank's move to expand in India comes after some other
foreign banks trimmed their India ambitions, partly because the
country hasn't grown as rapidly as previously hoped, and because
some European banks have been struggling in their home
countries.
"In recent times, they've been pulling back as compared to
investing," said Saswata Guha, director at ratings firm Fitch India
Services Pvt. Ltd.
Of the 46 foreign banks with a presence in India, only a handful
have built a sizable business, including U.K's Standard Chartered
PLC, and Citigroup Inc.
In the last few years, Swiss bank UBS Group AG and the U.S.'s
Morgan Stanley surrendered their licenses to operate a commercial
bank India, and Goldman Sachs, which had previously applied for a
commercial banking license, shelved its plan. All three companies
operate other businesses in the South Asian country, including an
equities and an investment banking business.
Foreign commercial banks face restrictions on the number of
branches they can open in India, and they are required to allocate
a portion of their lending to the so-called priority sector, which
includes borrowers from economically weaker backgrounds. Such loans
can be costly.
J.P. Morgan also has to abide by these rules, but Ms. Morparia
said that the Reserve Bank of India has recently made it easier for
foreign banks to meet the requirements. For instance, banks can now
buy portfolios of priority-sector loans from India's state-run
banks, which have a large presence in rural India.
Ms. Morparia said that J.P. Morgan's focus in India will remain
on companies with international trade links and other large firms,
to whom it will provide commercial-banking services including cash
management, trade finance and foreign-currency payments, and
lending services, as needed.
The bank's new branches will be in New Delhi, and near the south
Indian cities of Bangalore and Chennai. Like other major banks, Ms.
Morparia said that J.P. Morgan is looking to increasingly service
clients digitally.
"We've made significant investments in our tech platform to
basically embed a virtual branch across [clients'] desktops," said
Ms. Morparia.
Write to Shefali Anand at shefali.anand@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 01, 2016 10:04 ET (14:04 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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