London, Sept. 7 (PTI): At least seven foreign-owned retail bank branches in the UK, including some Indian ones, could be forced to close down in a crackdown on overseas banks to insulate the British economy from the global crises.

A consultation launched in February by Bank of England’s Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA), responsible for supervising individual banks, concluded last week.

The new rules require banks from outside the European Economic Area to offer only minimal retail services.

While Bank of England declined to name the lenders affected, analysts suggested that the Bank of India, the SBI, Isbank of Turkey and Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation of Singapore are likely to be affected. They will either have to shut down their retail banking operations in Britain or convert from branch status to full UK subsidiary — an expensive and cumbersome process.

Some American banks, including JP Morgan and Citigroup, also have UK branches, but are less likely to be seriously hit because they also operate UK subsidiaries.

The PRA said in a statement that deposit-taking foreign banks that wanted to remain a branch must have less than £100 million in account balances and fewer than 5,000 customers. The PRA consultation had suggested that the branches might be able to trade if there were a “very high level of assurance” from the regulator in the parent bank’s home country.

The new rules mean it will be easier for wholesale foreign banks, which cater to other financial institutions and large corporations rather than retail customers, to open non-deposit taking branches, which would not face size limits but are likely to make it very difficult for some retail bank branches to operate.