'Our focus will be on niche segments'

BANKER SPEAKS/ Jim Brown

Jim Brown, head of consumer clients-Asia, ABN Amro Bank, spends a lot of time in India nowadays. This country accounts for 35 per cent of the bank's revenues from Asian operations, which are being acquired in parts by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Fortis and Santander. Brown is in the country to launch a platinum credit card designed by a fashion designer.

In an interview with Anita Bhoir, Brown confessed that he was visiting India for the fifth time this year. Excerpts:

How will the proposed takeover of ABN Amro Bank by RBS affect the consumer banking business in India?

The global acquisition of ABN Amro Bank by RBS will have no significant impact on Asia, including India. The integration process is under way. But the Dutch authorities are still to approve the move.

RBS has no presence in the consumer banking space in India and there will hence be no impact on the India business. From the customer perspective, we will be able to bring in RBS' expertise.

How is your consumer banking business doing in India?

India is a very important country in our growth strategy. The consumer banking business in India has been growing at the rate of 30 per cent and has more than one million clients.

We should be able to maintain this growth momentum and are focusing on the mass affluent segment. In the consumer finance space, we have increased our focus on unsecured lending as we have good risk management practices.

There is a huge potential in the personal loans and credit cards business. The small and medium enterprises (SME) business is another key focus area across Asia, including India. SMEs are the key wealth creators in the economy.

Are Indian banks seeing a rise in non-performing assets?

Delinquency has been on the rise. We have a very targeted approach. We are a bank for the mass affluent and good at managing risk.

Branch expansion in India is regulated. How does RBI's push in favour of under-banked areas blend with your mass-affluent strategy?

The bank has 28 branches and three licenses to set up branches in Agra, Jodhpur and Jalandhar. Jodhpur has a sizeable number of SMEs, which is an opportunity.

We will also look at alternative distribution options such as telemarketing, direct sales agents and relationship managers.

We would consider all strategic options and continue our focus on tier II and tier III centres. We will be in niche areas, rather than being everything to everyone. We will focus on our client requirements.