India Axis Bank to start Sri Lanka operations

COLOMBO (Reuters): India’s No.3 private lender Axis Bank has been granted a banking licence in Sri Lanka and will start operations at its first branch this week, the island nation’s Central Bank said on Wednesday.

Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard confirmed Axis Bank will be the fifth Indian bank licensed to operate in Sri Lanka, which is experience a growth in demand for banking services amid a post-war economic expansion.

“They are starting on Friday and they will do all banking business. Initially they will open one branch and then they will have to make an application for anything they will want,” Cabraal told Reuters.

An Axis Bank spokesman who declined to give his name confirmed the branch was due to be opened Friday, and said it would be the bank’s fifth international outlet.

Axis Bank posted a net profit growth of 27 per cent to 9.4 billion Indian rupees ($ 191.2 million) in the June quarter.

Axis Bank is the fifth Indian bank to enter Sri Lanka, hoping to catch a piece of the growing economy after the end of a three-decade civil war in 2009. The State Bank of India, Indian Bank, ICICI Bank and Indian Overseas Bank are already in Sri Lanka.

Earlier this year, Indian Bank opened a branch in Sri Lanka’s northern city of Jaffna, in the former war zone, aiming to get a piece of the growing post-war reconstruction lending pie.