Barclays Bank launches branch in India

Pune has more than a hundred educational institutes.The pune is also emerging as a prominent location for IT and manufacturing companies to expand. Barclays will cater to the needs of leading players in these sectors and also service the needs of diverse range of retail customers, including professionals, salaried individuals and entrepreneurs, a press release issued here said.
Barclays Bank already now has nine branches across the country like Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Junagadh near Rajkot, Kanchipuram near Chennai and Nelamangala near Bengaluru, Ahmednagar in Maharashtra and Rajahmundry in Andhra Prades and over 25 ATMs.Barclays Bank is committed to India and this branch is yet another milestone in our efforts to strengthen ties in the country.Barclays Corporate business has built a strong franchise in India over the past three-and-a-half-years with over 6,00,000 customers, the release said, adding India is one of the growing markets for Barclays PLC globally.In March 2008, Barclays Bank PLC launched Barclays Investments and Loans (India) Limited, a non-banking finance company, popularly known as Barclays Finance, to increase its footprint in the country by offering a range of products and services.

Banks need to lift deposit rates

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) chief said on Friday that banks need to increase their deposit rates and reduce lending rates to accelerate the savings, investment rate and boost a double-digit growth. "This means banks need to raise the interest rates offered to depositors and reduce the lending rates charged on borrowers - in other words, reduce their intermediation costs, or in technical terminology, reduce the net interest margin (NIM)," Duvvuri Subbarao said in a speech on Friday.
There is a need to raise the level of national savings and channel those into investments to achieve double- digit inclusive growth, he added. Subbarao said that Indian banks' NIM was still higher than their peers in other emerging market economies even after accounting for mandated social sector obligation.
"Banks are short of funds and probably the direction that the RBI governor wants to give is to banks to lend more. Since banks don't have much resources, there is still scope for hike of 25-50 basis points in deposit rates, said Sandeep Shah, head of equity sales and research ar Tower Capital. Indian bank loans rose 22 percent on year as of Nov. 5. The growth is in line with the RBI's projection of 20 percent by March end but deposit growth at 15.3 percent as of early November lags the RBI's projection of 18 percent.