Mumbai, July 9 (PTI): Barclays has started non-resident Indian banking to attract the large expatriate population settled abroad. The NRI customers in England can now visit over 50 Barclays branches in and around London and access among other products, two types of savings bank accounts, the bank said in a statement.

From early August, the bank will extend the services to more than 70 branches in large cities across the UK. The bank will offer non-resident external savings account to customers for rupee transactions in India using their overseas earnings in any foreign currency.

The non-resident ordinary (NRO) savings account will enable NRIs to manage their rupee income in India, the statement added.

Both accounts come with a mandate facility to allow individuals in India to manage the account jointly with the holder, free ATM cards for both the account and the mandate holder, free cheque book and free pay orders from India.

The accounts will earn an interest rate of 3.50 per cent and is paid half-yearly. “Barclays is helping its Indian customers put their money where the heart is. There are over one million NRIs in the UK. Many with friends and family in India want to share their earnings with them,” said Arvinder Bharath, global head of Barclays’ NRI banking.

The bank also launched NRE term deposit and NRO term deposit accounts, to convert currency savings from as low as Rs 50,000 and place them into term deposits for returns of up to 5.45 per cent with no penalties for premature withdrawal.