US conglomerate General Electric on Wednesday said it is planning to foray into the banking sector in India through acquisitions of an existing bank or by setting up a subsidiary of its own.
GE India CEO Scott Bayman said the current regulatory environment in India was moving in a direction, which would facilitate the company's foray into the banking sector. However, he refused to set a timeframe for the proposed venture.
The planned foray into the banking sector comes after the US conglomerate's initiatives for establishing a presence in the highly competitive housing finance and personal loan segments in December last year under the 'GE Money' brand.
All retail financial products of GE Consumer Finance are now marketed under the GE Money brand. At present, GE runs 17 banks in Europe under the GE Money Bank brand with assets worth $20 billion.
GE India, which was among the first US multinationals to establish a presence in India, has revenues of over $1billion. It has business interests in a wide variety of fields such as business process outsourcing, medical equipment, power and defence.
The company was also working closely with Indian defence establishments on the prestigious Light Combat Aircraft project for the Indian Air Force, Bayman said.