COLOMBO: The Ahmedabad-based Axis Bank, which opened its first office in Sri Lanka on Friday, has set as its goal, full-blooded participation in the island nation’s post-war economic development. And it is apparent that the Lankan government will be only too happy to assign Axis a role in this critical area.
Axis is India’s third largest private bank. But an additional factor influencing its credibility in Lanka is the crucial role that its chairman, Adarsh Kishore, had played in helping Lanka secure a $2.6 billion Stand by Arrangement (SAB) from the IMF in July 2009 in the teeth of opposition from the powerful Western lobby.
A bank official told
Express that Kishore’s seminal role was acknowledged by the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), Ajith Nivaard Cabral, at the ceremonial opening of the bank’s branch here.
Speaking to reporters after the ceremony, Kishore said that Axis would look to financing infrastructural projects, through investment banking, financial syndication and debt management services.
“We want to be partners in Sri Lanka’s growth,” he stressed. With 17 years’ experience in banking and with 1,456 branches in India, Axis had been a “very large” player in infrastructural development and financial syndication in India, Kishore said. The bank was also reputed to be the “best” debt manager, Kishore said.
The second area which the bank is looking at is the handling of remittances of Lankans working abroad. Every year, about $3 billion are remitted by Lankan workers through the banking system. Axis had experience in handling remittances in India, and its branch in the UAE would help function effectively in this field, Kishore said.