Baroda’s Indian parent merges with rival banks

The parent company of Kenya’s tier-two lender Bank of Baroda Kenya has merged with two other banks to become the second-largest public sector bank in India.

The Indian government initiated the merger of Bank of Baroda, Vijaya and Dena as part of efforts to clean up the country’s banking sector that has been hit by a surge in bad debt.

The combined entity now has a customer base of 120 million customers served via a 9,500 branch network and 13,000 ATMs.

This means that Kenyan businesses and manufacturers who source for goods and raw materials from India-based companies, can now take advantage of this new development to ease their transactions with their Indian business partners.

The new entity offers businesses a wide array of subsidiaries in 20 countries, giving their customers a one-stop-shop platform to execute their business.

“We are not changing our name but have combined our financial platform into one across the world that will see traders enjoy a one off end-to-end solution to all their financial transactions,” Bank of Baroda Kenya’s managing director Saravanakumar Appavu said.

The bank which has 13 branches in Kenya, five in Nairobi, two in Mombasa, single branches in Nakuru, Thika, Meru, Eldoret, Kakamega and Meru said plans were underway to open two more branches along Muthithi road and within Baba Dogo light industries in Nairobi.

“We have managed to fend off the perception that we are an Asian-only bank as some of our branches serve a higher number of customers from diverse backgrounds,” Mr Appavu told Business Daily.