"While it will not be mandatory for existing foreign banks (i.e., banks set up before August 2010) to convert into WOSs, they will be incentivised to convert into WOSs by the attractiveness of the near-national treatment afforded to WOSs," RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said in the Second Quarter Review of Monetary Policy 2013-14.
The initial minimum paid-up voting equity capital or net worth for a WOS shall be Rs 500 crore, Rajan said, adding, "It is proposed to issue the scheme by mid-November."
Such WOSs would be treated at par with domestic banks, including in the matter of opening branches.
The RBI is working to nudge large foreign banks with 30 or more branches in India to get incorporated locally.
These banks are open to the idea of local incorporation provided they get a level playing field with local banks and a waiver
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