HDFC Bank is looking at Canada, Singapore: Parekh

NEW DELHI: With the in-principle approval to merge Centurion Bank of Punjab with itself, HDFC Bank is looking at increasing its global footprint.
    
"We are exploring possibility of having presence in some location," said Housing Development Finance Corporation Chairman Deepak Parekh, promoter of HDFC Bank.
    
Among various destination the bank is looking at Canada and Singapore, he said.
    
To fund the global expansion, HDFC Bank also plans to raise one billion dollars (about Rs 4,000 crore) from overseas markets.
    
"We are going to open some foreign branches for which we require funds," HDFC Bank Treasury (Head) Sudhir Joshi had said.
    
"As and when we need, we will raise fund through different instruments under the medium-term notes (MTN) programme and the first tranche of fund would be raised in the next 3-4 months," he had said.
    
The bank has already applied for licences in Bahrain and Hong Kong. Currently, it has a representative office in Dubai.
    
Meanwhile, the country's second largest private sector lender decided to merge CBoP, a move that will create the country's largest private sector financial institution in terms of branch network.
    
The Board has already decided the swap ratio of 1:29 for the merger and the combined entity's branch network would go up to 1,148 branches nation-wide.