CitiBank scales down India ops–Here’s looking at 7 international banks that made India exit in last 2 decades

New Delhi: American banking major Citi has joined a long list of foreign banks that have either exited or cut down on their business presence in India with the sale of its consumer banking business to Axis Bank for Rs 12,325 crore.

Citi's scaling down of operations in India is part of its strategy to exit retail businesses in 13 markets to conserve capital and focus on higher-yielding revenue streams. It had entered India in 1902 and started the consumer banking business in 1985. )

Except for Singaporean lender DBS Bank, which has expanded its presence in the country and also acquired a domestic private sector bank, many foreign lenders have cut their presence in the country.

Before Citi's exit from the consumer banking business was announced on Wednesday, global banking majors such as ANZ Grindlays, RBS, Commonwealth Bank of Australia have scaled down their operations in India.

Here’s looking at 7 international banks that made India exit in last 2 decades

1. Australia and New Zealand Bank, in 2000, wound up domestic operations here after selling its Grindlays Bank unit to Standard Chartered for USD 1.34 billion. However, it re-entered the Indian market in 2011 by opening a new branch in Mumbai. ANZ was in India since 1984 through its presence as Grindlays Bank.

2. In 2011, Deutsche Bank sold its credit card business to IndusInd Bank.

3. In 2012, British banking major Barclays massively scaled down India operations by closing a third of its branches located in the non-metro areas. Shrinking its operations in India was part of the UK based bank's strategy to move away from retail banking to concentrate more on the corporate banking, investment banking and wealth management verticals.

4. In 2013, UBS exited India operations while Morgan Stanley surrendered its banking license while continuing its investment banking business.

5. Likewise, Merril Lynch, Barclays and Standard Chartered scaled down their operations in 2015.

6. In 2016, Commonwealth Bank of Australia exited India operations saying the decision was taken after a careful evaluation of its India operations alongside its refocussed strategy.

7. The same year (in 2016), Royal Bank of Scotland Plc (RBS) too decided to wind up its corporate, retail, and institutional banking business in the Indian market as it wanted to reduce its global footprint.

Among others, HSBC halved its branches to just over two dozen on technological shifts, and reduced its presence in 14 cities in 2016, while BNP Paribas shut down its wealth management business in India in 2020.

With PTI Inputs