Canara Bank to open branches in Johannesburg and Frankfurt in FY14

In a bid to expand its overseas footprint, Bangalore-based public sector lender Canara Bank is planning to open a branch at Johannesburg in South Africa and Frankfurt in Germany by end of this fiscal. In this regard, the bank has received approval from Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Central Bank of South Africa to open its first branch in South Africa by December this year, while the bank is awaiting regulatory approvals from Germany’s government for opening a branch in Frankfurt, which is likely to happen by March 2014. At present, Canara Bank has five overseas branches - two in United Kingdom, one each in Bahrain, Shanghai and Hong Kong. These branches together contribute about 4.5% of the bank’s total business of Rs 6, 31,863 crore as of June 2013. The Bank also has a joint venture with State Bank of India in Moscow for commercial banking operations. The bank has 40 per cent stake in the JV. In addition to South Africa and Germany, the bank is also planning to open branches at 12 other overseas centres - DIFC (Dubai), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania), Tokyo (Japan), Abuja (Nigeria), Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), Qatar Financial Centre (Qatar), New York (USA), Sydney (Australia), Ontario (Canada), Wellington (New Zealand) and Singapore by March 2015.