New Delhi, Aug 18:
To cash in on the RBI’s concessional swap window, Indian Bank plans to raise $400 million through External Commercial Borrowings (ECB) this week to support its business growth.
In addition, the public sector lender may mop up another $600 million via ECB before the Reserve Bank of India’s deadline of December 31, 2026.
“The bank is considering raising $400 million via the ECB route as early as this week… the overseas fund raise would come at a very competitive rate,” Indian Bank MD-CEO Binod Kumar said.
Post August, he said, the bank would consider garnering another $600 million as the RBI window is available till the end of the calendar year.
Overall, the bank is planning to garner $1 billion from the ECB and about $2 billion via Foreign Currency Non-Resident (Bank) or FCNR (B) deposits, he said.
“Indian Bank has already raised $1.5 billion from FCNR(B) deposits…we have seen good demand from NRIs. They are willing to put their money in such a product as it provides attractive returns…we hope it would touch $2 billion,” he said,
Better than expected FCNR(B) flows have been there, which is why the RBI halted the concessional swap facility much ahead of the scheduled deadline of September 30, 2026, he said.
On Friday, Reserve Bank prematurely closed the window for mobilising FCNR(B) deposits under its special USDINR forex swap facility citing the encouraging response and strong forex inflows generated through the scheme.