April 24, 2023
During his visit to the GIFT City campus on Wednesday, Sanjiv Chadha, the Managing Director and CEO of Bank of Baroda (BoB) announced that the business conducted by the BoB’s GIFT City branch at the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) will not only outperform its own London branch this year but will also stand at par with the New York branch in the next three to five years.
Chadha explained that since the GIFT City branch started, the business of advances and deposits was just below USD 1 billion as of March 31, 2020. However, over the last three years, they were able to expand the business to over USD 5.5 billion, which represents a growth of 500%. This level of growth is remarkable considering that typically, a bank’s business grows by only 50-70% over a five-year period.
As a result, the GIFT City branch has become the fourth-largest overseas branch of the bank’s international operations, after New York, Dubai, and London. Chadha said that this year, the GIFT City branch should become the third largest in operations, surpassing London.
Chadha emphasized that GIFT City will be one of the two major important wholesale business centers for BoB in the next three to five years, alongside New York.
The new premises of BoB’s IFSC Banking Unit (IBU) in Brigade Tower is spread over 15,000 square feet, which is about eight times larger than the existing office space in Hiranandani Signature in GIFT City. Chadha noted that the new premises will have the capacity to accommodate 125 people, a significant increase from the current 26 employees who work out of GIFT City.
BoB has also closed down overseas offices in Hong Kong and Brussels and moved some of the business from these centers to GIFT City. Chadha revealed that the bank is attempting to set up international treasury operations in GIFT City for all its international jurisdictions, including supporting all international operations in terms of funding.
