India’s state-owned banks are targeting mobilisation of nearly $30 billion through FCNR(B) deposits, overseas foreign currency borrowings (OFCBs), and external commercial borrowing (ECB) under the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) concessional swap window, data compiled by Business Standard based on these banks’ post-earnings commentary showed.
Data shared by the government in Parliament showed that net inflows into FCNR(B) deposits stood at $28 billion as of July 30. Foreign banks mobilised $8.37 billion, private sector banks $10.73 billion, and public sector banks $8.84 billion. Among individual lenders, HSBC emerged as the largest mobiliser, with $6.14 billion, followed by SBI at $4.12 billion and ICICI Bank at $3.70 billion. Later, during a post-earnings press conference on Friday, SBI said it had mobilised $6 billion so far and was confident of total mobilisation of $10 billion by September.
“We have mobilised almost $6 billion FCNR (B) deposits so far, but the traction indicates that we should be able to mobilise around $10 billion,” C S Setty, SBI chairman, said at the post-earnings media briefing. SBI is helping non-resident Indian (NRI) customers leverage their FCNR(B) deposits, largely through its own branches, particularly its branch in GIFT City, Setty said. “We also have a standby letter of credit (SBLC) product, but it is not widely used at this point,” he said.
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