The State Bank of India (SBI) is going to launch its second official branch in China in Tianjin, close to Beijing.
The new Tianjin branch with $47 million capital would open in the end of February, Dinesh Sharma, Chief Executive Officer of SBI, Shanghai branch told reporters.
However, still this branch will have to wait for five-year to operate until an RMB licence has not acquired, as per China rules.
SBI is the first Indian bank which acquires a licence from Chinese authorities to do business in the local Renminbi (RMB) currency, will now operates in US dollar through new SBI’s Tianjin branch, reports said.
SBI first branch in Shanghai operates with $76 million capital, including 300 million RMB and also collaborating with Indian companies BOB and BOI for trade finance business in China.
Launch of second branch in China after having a branch in Shanghai since 2006 is likely an attempt to expand trade between China-India, particularly on China’s the fast-developing trade hub of Tianjin to boost the operations of the bank’s second China branch.
While talking about impact of declining Indian exports on bank, Sharma said that the Indian banks are not much affected by the Indian deficit trade as they looked to take advantage of the over all trade between the two countries.
There are at least six more Indian banks, which are either operating in China or seeking licenses for branch operations.
