Punjab National Bank (PNB) has dropped plans of entering the Canadian market as regulatory clearances were taking a long time.
"We have been pursuing this for 4-5 years but it did not reach a logical conclusion. So, we decided not to go forward with it," K R Kamath, chairman and managing director of the state-run lender, told PTI.
The bank had plans to open a subsidiary in Canada with a capital of Rs 100 crore to serve Indian diaspora as well as to finance bilateral trade and investments.
PNB has overseas footprints in 10 countries with 4 overseas branches.
It has a wholly-owned subsidiary in the UK with 7 branches and a subsidiary each in Kazakhstan and Bhutan.
It has 5 representative offices in Australia, Norway, Dubai, China and Kazakhstan; and one joint venture with Everest Bank Ltd, Nepal.
PNB is also looking to upgrade its representative office in Sydney (Australia) to a full-fledged branch. The lender has received nod from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for opening a representative office in Yangon (Mynamar) and Dhaka (Bangladesh).
The bank's overseas business at end of March 2014 rose 52 per cent to Rs 73,447 crore from Rs 48,335 crore a year ago. Total business in Indian currency terms was Rs 8,00,666 crore comprising deposits of Rs 4,51,397 crore and credit of Rs 3,49,269 crore at the end of March 2014.
State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest lender, operates in Canada through a subsidiary. SBI (Canada) has seven branches, including at places like Toronto and Vancouver.
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