Mashreq in India focuses on wholesale banking, cross-border trade, treasury and investment banking products through its branch in Mumbai. It also has a global competency center named Mashreq Global Network in Bangalore.
In January this year, Mashreq Bank invested an additional capital of $100 million. Abdelaal said India remains a strategic market for the bank especially with the global centre in Bangalore.
“India is a strategic market for us not only in terms of banking but has a massive network (Mashreq Global Network) over there that supports the entire group. The bank is expanding its corporate (lending) footprint business at the same time using the pool of talent available in the Indian market to support the entire operation of the group,” Abdelaal said.
Mashreq Global Network (MGN), the high performance has tripled its headcount in the last 18 months and is now supporting the bank’s global operations.
However, the bank has no plans to open new branches in India and will focus on corporate banking.
“We are expanding in India in multiple ways, growing our corporate book and our corporate support. We have no intention of growing our brick and mortar branches, rather we will rather grow our digital services,” he said.
Abdelaal Mashreq will continue to expand in India not only from corporate activity but also from talent acquisition.
The bank currently has 1550 employees in India up from 1440 in January and is expected to grow by 15% before the end of the year.
Mashreq unveiled its new brand identity with tagline ‘Rise Every Day’ earlier this week. Its new brand identity is anchored on a three-pronged approach of ‘innovation, consistency and prudence’ towards customer experience, the bank said.
