EXIM (Export-Import) Bank is expected to operationalise its proposed GIFT City subsidiary for trade finance by the third quarter of the current financial year, said MD Harsha Bangari on Friday.

“The Ministry of Corporate Affairs approval on name came yesterday (Thursday), and the bank will now have to file for incorporation,” said Bangari at a meet to discuss the bank’s FY23 results. EXIM Bank posted a net profit of ₹1,556 crore for FY23, compared to ₹738 crore in the previous year. Incremental slippages in the new book were around 0.3 per cent; however, the gross NPA ratio was at 4.1 per cent owing to one delinquent exposure in Ghana, said Bangari, adding that the account is fully secured under the National Export Insurance Account.

Subsidiary

The bank has reported to the board that the proposed subsidiary, set to be named India EXIM Finserv IFSC Private Ltd, will be launched by Q3. “But we could be ready earlier also. We expect to roll out full-scale operations in Q3,” she added.

Initially, the arm will focus on international export factoring and that, too, only with the  presence of an import factor in order to promote trade finance and factoring, said Bangari, adding that now the factoring market in India is miniscule at around $500 million.

She added that even though rupee facility for foreign trade is not available yet, rupee-denominated trade is on the cards, especially led by potential in neighbouring countries, where people know, understand, and are familiar and comfortable with the Indian rupee.

“We are working around on a possibility where when we lend to foreign countries whether than can happen in rupee. It’s going to be a gradual process because Indian companies also have to start getting used to not getting their receivables in dollars,” she said, adding that there is a lot of discussions and work being done to make both Indian companies and foreign buyers more comfortable with trading in the rupee.

EXIM Bank plans to raise $4 billion via overseas debt and ₹40.000-45,000 crore in the domestic market in FY24, against ₹52,000 crore in FY23. The bank expects to maintain the 14 per cent growth of FY23, pegging growth for the current financial year at 12-15 per cent.

Further, despite the increase in interest rates across the globe in FY23, the lender should be able to maintain NIM (net interest margin) of around 2 per cent in FY24 against 2.3 per cent in FY23.

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