Dubai exposure of banks in India at $537 mn

The government on Friday said that as many as seven banks in India, including SBI and ICICI Bank, had exposure worth $537 million in Dubai World and other group companies at the time of the Emirate's debt crisis in November 2009.

The exposure of the Indian Scheduled Commercial Banks in India to Dubai World, Nakheel Reality and its Group companies as on November 30, 2009, was $454.03 million for fund-based facilities and $82.94 million for non-fund based facilities, Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena informed the Lok Sabha.

The country's largest lender State Bank of India had exposure to the tune of $50 million, while Bank of Baroda had an exposure of $200 million. Besides, private sector lender ICICI Bank had an exposure of over $28 million and HDFC Bank of $4.23 million.

Other foreign banks present in India with an exposure in Dubai are HSBC (about $44 million), Standard Chartered Bank (over $120 million) and Citi Bank ($86 million), Meena said. In November last year, the Dubai government owned Dubai World had asked its creditors for six more months to repay its debts as asset prices were coming down. Dubai World has total debts of $59 billion.

This raised concerns over the financial health of the once financially strong Gulf country. "The government is of the view that the recent global financial crisis has proved the soundness and resilience of our banking system, which has regained and sustained economic growth momentum in the country," he added.

He added that the Indian public sector banks are adequately capitalised and that they are maintaining higher Capital-to-Risk Weighted Assets Ratio to meet any additional provisioning requirement arising out of any unforeseen higher NPA slippages.