RBL Bank is weighing capital-market expansion through brokerage and asset management, while work on custodian and settlement services is underway, Managing Director and Chief Executive R Subramaniakumar told the Press Trust of India (PTI).
Emirates NBD said it completed its acquisition of a majority stake in RBL Bank on June 18 and holds 60% of the bank’s expanded share capital. Subramaniakumar told PTI the group’s existing capital-markets presence in India would be considered as RBL weighs its options.
In the interview, Subramaniakumar said RBL is assessing which activities could operate within the bank, at group level or in specialized units outside the bank. PTI reported that asset management and retail or institutional brokerage would require specialized units outside the bank. RBL has not decided whether to build those operations or acquire an existing operator, and has set no timetable for the brokerage and asset-management plans, he said. “All the plans are under evaluation,” Subramaniakumar told PTI. The agency also reported that public- and private-sector bank peers have dedicated subsidiaries for similar activities, without naming them.
Emirates NBD Capital, the group’s investment-banking arm, received a Category I merchant-banking license in India on Jan. 28, Emirates NBD said. The license allows services that include equity offerings and local debt placements, the bank said.
Separately, Subramaniakumar told PTI that custodian and settlement services could take up to three quarters to become operational. The interview did not specify when that estimate begins.
RBL’s website identifies the bank as a mutual fund distributor registered with the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) since April 8, 2011, and lists funds from multiple fund houses.
