Pakistani banks keen to explore Indian market

NEW DELHI—India Friday said three banks from Pakistan have shown interest in starting operations in India and a decision in this regard would be taken on reciprocal and simultaneous basis, reports PTI.
Habib Bank Ltd, National Bank of Pakistan and United Bank Ltd have evinced interest in opening their branch or office in India, Minister of State for Finance Pawan Kumar Bansal told Lok Sabha in a written reply.
In a meeting held on September 26 between RBI Governer and Governer of State Bank of Pakistan, it was agreed that licenses to the banks for opening the branches would be given on reciprocal and simultaneous basis, he said.
To another question, Bansal said the government has not received any proposal on merger of Corporation Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Indian Bank, which recently entered into a strategic tie-up. These banks have entered into a Memorandum of Intent (MOI) on September 15 to form a strategic alliance in order to reap the benefits of economies of scale.
In another reply, he said only one bank - Sangli Bank Ltd - has capital adequacy ratio of less than nine per cent, prescribed by the Reserve Bank as per Basel I and II norms.RBI has taken various corrective measures to strengthen the financial position of Sangli Bank, he said.
It has advised the bank to increase its net worth, put in place a business plan and management strategy, and improve recovery of NPAs. India Friday said it was concerned about possible linkages of terrorists to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in its neighbourhood and emphasised the need for greater international cooperation to counter this threat.
“International terrorism and the proliferation of WMD are just two of the most urgent challenges,” External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said here while releasing the book “One Policy — Challenges and Opportunities” of the Foreign Services Institute (FSI). Mukherjee said the world had of late seen the emergence of radically new terrorist structures that are designed to function as relatively independent cells, thus making the task of detecting them more difficult.
“The possible linkages of terrorists with proliferation of WMDs are a cause of even greater worry. India is particularly concerned by these developments,” he said.”Our neighbourhood has seen the manifestaion of all these problems, which, coupled with unstable political conditions, pose grave risks for our security,” he said.
Mukherjee said greater international cooperation would be needed in the years ahead to combat these menaces and national capacities would have to be built up to better anticipate “the crises of tomorrow.—Agencies