Second innings

Mumbai, June 16: The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) today resumed its second innings in India when it announced the commencement of banking operations in the country with the opening of a branch here in the city.

ANZ is Australia’s fourth largest bank. It had earlier owned Grindlays Bank, which was sold to Standard Chartered Bank in India in 2000.

Last year, ANZ had received an in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a foreign banking licence.

The bank said its Mumbai branch would support trade and investment between India and the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia and New Zealand, as well as Europe and North America.

The Mumbai branch will initially support corporate and institutional banking clients in India and ANZ’s network clients looking to do business in the country. It will provide a full range of rupee and foreign currency banking services, including funding and hedging solutions, trade finance, cash and payments, foreign exchange and debt capital markets and access to ANZ’s expertise in natural resources, agriculture and infrastructure.

Subhas DeGamia has been appointed CEO of ANZ India. DeGamia has over 20 years of experience with ANZ in institutional banking and financial markets.

According to Alex Thursby, chief executive Asia Pacific, Europe and America, the opening of the Mumbai branch is part of ANZ’s strategy to become a supra-regional bank.

He added that while India had become Australia’s fourth largest export destination because of the rapid economic growth and demand for natural resources, the bank would look to help its customers by supporting their domestic requirements and connecting them with its global expertise across 32 markets.

ANZ has a back office processing centre in Bangalore which employs approximately 5,000 people.