Rabo to start commercial bank next year

Kolkata: The bank proposed to be set up by the Rabo group of the Netherlands will be a commercial bank for all practical purposes, but will focus particularly on sectors such as food, life sciences and technology.

The bank, which will come up in association with a select group of banking professionals, will be launched in early 2003. It will try to bring in a certain degree of product differentiation in terms of both banking products and technology application.

"The proposed banking outfit, among the first to be cleared by the Reserve Bank of India in recent times after it started vetting banking applications afresh, will build on areas that have been identified as growth sectors in India," says Rabo India Finance managing director Rana Kapoor.

Rabo, he says, is the worlds only AAA-rated bank in the private sector. The Indian venture will be a conservative bank in many ways, maintaining strict credit discipline and following all prudential norms.

Rabo India Finance, for its part, has been in operation for more than three years. It is now going in for fresh capitalisation the Foreign Investment Promotion Board recently cleared an additional infusion of $30 million.