DBS to launch Indian subsidiary by October

The bank is only waiting for final greenlight from the central bank.

Singapore’s DBS said that it is on track to become the first foreign bank to open a local Indian unit by October as it is only pending final clearance from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to consolidate its 12 branches into a newly registered subsidiary, DBS Bank India Ltd.

India is one of the six core markets for the bank, DBS Group CEO Piyush Gupta told Indian media.

“We plan to move quickly from 12 cities and 12 branches now to 30 cities and 50 branches and 70 other outlets within 12 months. This network will help us reach more customers and small enterprises and also serve our large corporate clients better. We see huge growth in this market,” he added.

DBS and State Bank of Mauritius applied to start a new subsidiary in India in 2015. The Singapore lender received an in-principle approval from the RBI in September 2017.

“This will change the way we do business. We will have new touch points to service SMEs and our growing wealth management clients. But we will also have to gradually increase our priority sector targets to meet RBI regulations,” DBS India CEO, Surojit Shome said.