Hemant G. Contractor, managing director and group executive (international banking), told Arab News in an exclusive interview: “I reviewed with my team the set up here and it is all set to go.”

Contractor was in the Kingdom with a team of top officials to discuss and facilitate all preparatory aspects prior to the launch of the branch in Jeddah.

He said: “We will start soon after completion of few regulatory requirements. This is expected in the next few weeks. So we will commence operations by next month”

Contractor added: “We have completed all other procedural requirements and all necessary infrastructure is in place. We are ready in all aspects to launch operations in Jeddah.”

He was confident that SBI would make an impact in the Kingdom despite some big players in the sector.

“My confidence stems from the wide range of products and services we will be offering in the Kingdom,” he said.

“The Saudi market is a growth driver for the entire GCC, the Kingdom is host to a great number of Indian expatriates and India and Saudi Arabia have strong and extensive links in trade and commerce. All these are strong reasons for us to be here.”

“Also once we begin operations, the Jeddah branch will provide a slew of services on both sides of the balance sheet and beyond balance sheet as well,” he said.

“On liability side, innovative deposit products, besides vanilla items like savings bank, current account and time deposits will be on offer,” he said.

“On asset side, project finance, syndication, SME lending, trade finance, car loan, personal loan, etc., will be among the target products. Electronic remittance, NRI services, etc., will be another focus area,” he added.

Contractor was circumspect when asked whether there are any plans to open SBI branches in Riyadh and Dammam soon.

“For the moment, we will be focusing on Jeddah. It would be a fairly big office with around 20 employees to start with, which would be ramped up as and when the need is felt,” he added.

Contractor stressed that the key to the bank making an impact is the manner in which the bank serves and competes in the remittance market.

“We will be competitive in our remittance services. Our rupee remittance products are very robust in terms of speed and convenience. Of course, I would see that Indian expats get better rates for their hard-earned savings,” he said.

“All our branches in India are networked, so are our associate banks. Further, we would also be handling remittances meant for customers of other banks in India. As such, we would be leveraging on our network and technology platform to transfer funds almost instantly,” he said.

“Anybody can send money to any place as we have a branch everywhere in India, and the transfer will be in real time,” he said.

“Virtually, our offering will be a one-stop solution for all those looking to remit money to India. Remittance services will be offered through our Jeddah branch and also through alternative delivery channels like Internet banking, to start with,” he said.

“Indians here are looking for fastest transfer, lowest charges and highest exchange rate for sending remittances to India. Our offering will address all these needs and therefore we hope to garner good market share in this space,” Contractor emphasized.

“We will also be assisting NRIs in a service close to their hearts — providing home loans in India.”

Contractor said: “NRI Home Loans is a generic scheme for all NRIs. Ours is probably the best product in the Indian market.”

On helping local Saudi and Saudi-Indo joint ventures, Contractor added: “It would be our endeavor to assist them in all their needs which is in line with our approach of growing local assets also.”

“Our Jeddah branch accords top priority for lending to local enterprises as well,” he said.

“Insofar as the Saudi-Indo joint ventures are concerned, our experience elsewhere in the world is that, wherever we are established, our bank has been the most preferred lender to Indian joint ventures in the respective countries. We will strive to retain this coveted position in the Kingdom too,” Contractor said.

On SBI’s role of enhancing business contacts between Saudi Arabia and India, Contractor added: “It is in our own interest to strengthen our overseas balance sheet size, it is and will remain our endeavor to fortify the economic ties between India and Saudi Arabia given the huge potential.”

“We remain a strong facilitator for majority of the top corporate houses in India,” he said.

Contractor also said: “Our presence in the Middle East is multifaceted. We are in this market now for over three decades. We have wholesale operations in Bahrain and Dubai (wholesale banking branch Bahrain, DIFC branch Dubai) besides full banking operations in Muscat and Bahrain. Bahrain is shortly to open two more offices. Our Jeddah operation will also be a full commercial banking operation. We propose to open another office in Qatar Financial Center.”

He added: “With a view to imparting functional independence and facilitating speedier decision making, we have also set up a regional center in Middle East which operates from Bahrain. We have, in Bahrain, one of the largest dealing rooms in the Gulf.”

In addition, he said: “Considering the huge potential available in the Middle East for rupee remittance requirements of Indian expatriates, both SBI and its associates have tie-ups with leading exchange companies in Gulf, some of which are being managed by us. Further, we have a large network of correspondent relations with almost all leading banks in the Middle East for catering to the banking needs across borders.”

When asked, what are the bank’s competitive advantages, Contractor said: “Our competitive advantages would stem from what value proposition we offer to the customers.”

In today’s financial market, he said “product differentiators are minimal. They mostly look alike; cloned but costumed differently. Customers are intelligent. They make out the differences and similarities easily. Technology platform too is similar; the same core banking platform. And yes, the market determines the price. So, the differentiator is what value we offer.”

Contractor added: “For us, our strength lies in the Indian diaspora. Second our international network spread over 34 countries, third we are one of the Fortune 500 top international banks, which indicates the strength of our balance sheet and most importantly, the fourth, a culture of modesty and transparency — we never over-promise, and under-deliver. We, as a corporate policy, never indulge in sharp practices. We are trustworthy people. Our brand inspires confidence in almost 1/5th of mankind for over two centuries now.”