VTB aims to secure foreign portfolio investor license in India

MOSCOW. Oct 26 (Interfax) - VTB plans to obtain a foreign portfolio investor (FPI) license in India, the Russian state bank's first deputy CEO, Dmitry Pyanov told reporters.

Sberbank , Russia's biggest lender secured an FPI license earlier. It allows the bank to participate in trading and invest on India's financial market.

"Indeed, we are now working on getting this license. I think that it's an open secret that since the Soviet era, the USSR's trade with India has had a large imbalance. This imbalance is on the side of greater exports to India than imports. Given the not freely convertible rupee, given the limited amount of goods that can be imported, any bank servicing foreign economic settlements between India and Russia sooner or later faces the issue of utilizing rupees," Pyanov said.

"At different moments in time, both client exporters, foremost, and banks servicing this trade have an imbalance of rupees. The natural question of temporary investment of rupees is relevant for any agent servicing this foreign trade," Pyanov said.

"We are working on getting this license for the option to carry out transactions in rupees on India's securities market to expand our product line for both clients and for ourselves," he said.

VTB plans to expand the operations of its branch in Delhi, which could earn a pretax profit of $2 million in 2023, VTB's head of international settlements, Olga Basha told reporters in September. The Indian branch primarily serves legal entities and is mostly engaged in settlements and trade finance.