No foreign bank in rural areas

Foreign banks operating in India have no branches in rural areas, the Lok Sabha was informed on Friday. However, private sector banks were operating in rural areas through 1109 offices, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said.

While the private sector banks have a total capital of Rs 3028 crore (Rs 30.28 billion), they have deposits worth Rs 2.69 lakh crore.

Similarly, foreign banks have a total capital of over Rs 4644 crore (Rs 46.44 billion) and total deposits worth about Rs 80,000 crore (Rs 800 billion), he said. In the past three years, one foreign bank, Antwerp Diamond Bank of Belgium, and two private banks, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Yes Bank, have started their operations in Maharashtra, he said.

Five applications of foreign banks are pending with the Reserve Bank of India. These are Common Wealth Bank of Australia, Commercial Bank of Ceylon, UBS AG Switzerland, Mizuho Corporate Bank of Japan and DBS Bank of Singapore, Chidambaram said.