Rajya Sabha
At present, 29 foreign banks have their branch operations in India. Five foreign banks have expressed their desire to open their maiden branch presence in India.
Foreign banks operating in India are required to lend to the priority sector to the extent of 32% of their Adjusted Net Bank Credit (ANBC) or credit equivalent amount of Off-Balance Sheet Exposure, whichever is higher, which also includes 10% lending for small enterprises and 12% for export credit. However, no target has been stipulated for foreign banks for providing loans to farmers and scheduled-castes and scheduled-tribes. Though no stipulation has been made for foreign banks to open their branches in rural areas, as per the Branch Authorisation Policy issued by RBI, banks are encouraged to open branches in rural and under-banked areas. Further, while considering applications for opening branches, RBI gives weightage to the nature and scope of banking facilities provided by banks to common persons, particularly in rural and under-banked areas.
This information was given by Shri Pawan Kumar Bansal, Minister of State for Finance in reply to a question raised by Shri Motilal Vora and Shri Satyavrat Chaturvedi in the Rajya Sabha today.
