HDFC to Provide Wealth Management Services in Dubai

HDFC Bank Ltd is the second largest private sector bank in India and has recently announced the opening of a new branch at Dubai International Finance Centre that will focus primarily on wealth management.

In this blog post Dian Skelton discusses this announcement and what it means for non-resident Indians (NRI’s) living in the UAE.

Overseas Expansion

Dian Skelton is Director at ViewPoint Software Services Limited. ViewPoint specialises in wealth and entity management solutions.

This is the third branch that HDFC Bank has opened outside of India and will serve non-resident Indians residing in the United Arab Emirates. They already have two representative offices operating in Dubai and 

Abu Dhabi and will continue running these assets along with the new branch.

In a statement released by the bank they explained the purpose of the new branch. “The new branch at Dubai International Finance Centre (DIFC) will offer advisory services to NRIs regarding treasury products, trade finance, loans and other related services.”

Customer Care

Following the announcement, HDFC have been keen to stress the value of their customers. Equities Group Head Abhay Aima commented on this, “We will continue to expand our off-shore operations to meet the banking requirements of our valued customers.” He went on to say that HDFC were committed to serving the Indian community in the UAE region on a whole.

Ashish Parthasarthy, Group Head of Treasury, also explained that their other branches around the world offer corporate, trade finance, loans and deposits to corporates and ultra-high net worth individuals, but their new branch will focus more on treasury products, trade finance, loans and other related services. 

Parthasarthy also added that the services of the Bahrain and Hong Kong branches will also be made available to their Dubai clients too.

Dian Skelton’s Thoughts

Dian was keen to comment on this issue given her expertise in wealth management. She commended the enthusiasm of the HFDC Bank to reach out to its customers living outside of India to offer them the same services given to resident Indians.  

This latest branch emphasises the ambition of HDFC Bank to expand outside of India. As of June 2014, HDFC has a distribution network comprising of 3,488 branches and 11,426 ATM machines situated through 2,231 cities and towns.