The Branch was inaugurated by the Prof. K.V. Thomas, Minister of Foods and Consumer Affairs India and Anwar Sadath, MLA, VD Satheesam, MLA, Jacob Moothedan, Chairman Aluva Municipality in the presence of members, of the BBK Executive Committee as well as the senior management, led by A Karim Bucheery, BBK Chief Executive and Mallikarjun Kota, Country Head BBK India.
BBK’s presence in India dated back to 1985 with the opening of its first branch in Mumbai, followed by a second one in Hyderabad. Then in 2012, the Reserve Bank of India granted BBK the license to operate the third branch in the country, in Kochi.
“We are very pleased to strengthen our presence in India considering the strong ties between the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Republic of India, built over long decades. Even before entering the India market, BBK has always focused on offering products and services to the Non Resident Indians (NRIs) community from its Bahrain, Kuwait and UAE branches,” A Karim Bucheery, BBK Chief Executive in a statement after the opening of the latest BBK branch said.
Like the other BBK branches in India, the Cochin branch is equipped with full fledged NRI desk that cater to a variety of needs of Non-Resident Indians like personalized banking, equity broking and wealth management. It offers full-fledged services and facilities to corporate customers including small to medium enterprises (SMEs), while it will further widen the base of resident customers.
“Our commitment to growing our business in India, in line with our overall expansion strategy, is ongoing and we have already applied for a license to establish a fourth branch in one of the main cities of the country. India has enormous growth potential and we anticipate new opportunities to leverage our GCC presence there and to capitalise on trade flows and money transfers between India and the GCC,” Bucheery, added.