India's Bank of Baroda eyes September formal launch of NZ services
The Bank of Baroda, which became New Zealand’s 19th registered bank on September 1 last year, has started offering term deposit rates and plans to roll out further banking services next month.
Satish Vermani, Bank of Baroda New Zealand's managing director, told interest.co.nz the local operation of the 54% Indian government owned bank had a "soft launch" last month, which included starting to offer deposit accounts and remittance services, and was planning a formal launch in September.
"We’ll be offering savings, term deposit, current accounts, cheque accounts (and) mortgages after our formal launch," Vermani said.
The Bank of Baroda deposit rates range from 4.9% on a minimum NZ$1,000 deposit for 12 months to 6% on a minimum NZ$10,000 deposit over three years. See all term deposit rates here.
The bank, which started in New Zealand with NZ$40 million of capital, is also looking to offer transactional banking services and trade finance to businesses.
"Our target will be business between New Zealand and countries where we’ve got branches because we have a presence in 26 countries," Vermani said
The Bank of Baroda, which describes itself as India's international bank that is pursuing an "ambitious" overseas expansion plan, was founded by Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad in 1908.
As of March 31 it had total assets equivalent to about NZ$84 billion and posted a 25% rise in net profit for the June quarter to 8.6 billion rupees (about NZ$258 million).
The Bank of Baroda has a BBB- credit rating from Fitch Ratings, the ratings agency's lowest investment grade credit rating.
The 2006 Census showed there were 106,000 Indian immigrants living in New Zealand and the latest Statistics NZ figures on migration show 6,677 Indians migrated to New Zealand in the year to June 30, making India the third biggest migration source after Australia and the United Kingdom.
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