Bank of Baroda expand its presence in South Africa
The Bank of Baroda generates about 35% profit from foreign operations.

Johannesburg, Aug. 09, 2007
Manu Patel

Anil Khandelwal, Chairman and Managing Director, Bank of Baroda said, "We are an Indian bank specialising in African operations, and want to act as economic bridge between India and South Africa and the new Johannesburg office was the 63rd foreign office of the Bank of Baroda as it marks its centenary year."

The Bank of Baroda opened its first African office in Kenya in 1953. The Bank of Baroda already operating an office in the port city of Durban for the past 10 years.

Mr.Essop Pahad, Minister at the official opening banquet of the Johannesburg branch said, "But making me far happier than even the opening of this branch tonight is the fact that you are opening branches in Arusha, Francistown and Kampala. It is far more critically important how we can develop the rest of the continent, especially where others do not want to go."

Mr. Rajeev Bhatia, Indian High Commissioner said, "The opening of a second branch of Bank of Baroda in the country would help to accelerate the pace with which the two countries are moving towards meeting the target set by the leaders of India and South Africa of increasing trade to $10b by 2010."

First National Bank of South African is now already in India

Entering its centenary year, BoB, will open its 10 new overseas branches in Australia, Bahrain, Trinidad and Tobago, Ghana, UK, South Africa, Kenya, Botswana, Tanzania and Uganda. Permission from the RBI has also been received by the BoB to open offices in New Zealand, Canada and Qatar, and approval from these countries is awaited.

Back home, Bank of Baroda has divulged plans to start on reverse mortgage loans for senior citizens in around 3 months. BoB’s home loan folder of Rs.6000 crore has grown substantially over the last three years, and the bank now seeks to venture into the reverse mortgage line of business. It faces competition initially from HDFC Bank, Punjab National Bank and Corporation Bank who are also working on the product.

BoB’s total business notched USD 48 billion on March 31, 2007, with a profit of USD 236 million.

The State Bank of India, ICICI and Bank of India are already operating in South Africa

• It has significant international presence with a network of 62 offices in 21 countries including 42 branches of the Bank, 17 branches of its six Subsidiaries and three Representative Offices in Malaysia, China & Thailand. The Bank also has one Joint Venture in Zambia with 9 branches.
• The Bank has presence in world’s major financial centers i.e. New York, London, Dubai, Hong Kong, Brussels and Singapore.
• The "round the clock around the globe", Bank of Baroda is further in the process of identifying/opening more overseas centers for increasing its global presence to serve its 29 million global customers in still better way.
• The Bank has recently upgraded its operations in Hong Kong on 2nd April 2007 and now offers full banking service through its two branches at Central and Tsim Sha Tsui. It would also be upgrading its operations to full banking service in China and through JV in Malaysia shortly.
• The Bank has plans to open new offices in Trinidad & Tobago, Australia and Ghana for which permissions / in principle approvals from host country regulators have been received. It is also in process of establishing offices in Canada, New Zealand, Isle of Man, Sri Lanka, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Mozambique, Russia etc. Besides this, it has plans to extend its reach in existing countries of operations in UK, UAE, South Africa, Tanzania, and Botswana.