GJEPC requests government to grant banking licence to ABN Amro Bank

The Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) has requested to the Central government that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to grant banking licence to ABN Amro Bank NV, report says.

The request comes in the wake of rising concerns over depleting finance in the Indian diamond industry by certain Indian banks that are also asking for extra collaterals. It is becoming difficult for the Indian diamantaires to secure finance especially after the closure of the ADB bank and the Standard Chartered drastically reducing its exposure to the diamond industry. ABN Amro Bank is the world's largest lender to diamond industry and if it gets banking licence then it could open up its branches in the country, adds a report. This would help the Indian diamantaires including small and medium firms to get easy finance.

Further, the report adds that ABN Amro Bank NV has applied to the RBI for a licence to open a branch in the country less than four years after selling the business to the Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS) as part of a $97 billion global deal. In March 2013, the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ) received RBI approval to start a branch in the country, a decade after it had sold its business to the UK's Standard Chartered Plc.