India’s corporate bond market will take between three to five years to develop given the huge financing demand from the infrastructure sector, Press Trust of India reported citing a senior Indian banker.
As of now, the Indian corporate bond market is in a development stage while regulatory changes are in the process, said Shyam Srinivasan, managing director and chief executive officer of Kerala-based The Federal Bank Ltd.
“The bond market has to evolve…It would take between three to five years,” he said at the Global IIMPACT 2016 conference and exhibition held in Singapore over the weekend.
But in the meantime, financial markets like Singapore can be a big feeder for India, Srinivasan pointed out.
Srinivasan is also confident that some of the Indian banks, with stressed balance sheets due to over leveraging by mega projects, will be able to recover over the next 12 months.
Probably the last 12 months has been tough for India and banks in particular, but he sees the next 12 months as positive period with the Indian economy seen growing at an average rate of 7.5% per annum, the best growth in the world.
Going forward, the Indian economy’s high side growth of 9% per annum will have a flourish banking sector, according to Srinivasan.
Within these improving environments, Federal Bank would continue to focus on serving its clients and customers in India and overseas.
“We are keen on serving our clients for their India needs and we are keen on serving our customers in India who have foreign currency or investment requirements overseas,” he said.
Federal Bank has set up an offshore banking unit at the Gujarat Finance Tec-City to serve customers and clients both in India and overseas.
It has also tied up with Singapore’s Phillip Capital last week to serve international clients.
But there are no immediate plans of setting up a Singapore banking operation.
“If one day we have an opportunity to set up an office in Singapore, we will have it,” he said. fii-news.com
