Lloyds TSB launches India banking initiative

Lloyds TSB today launched an India banking service providing customers with fee-free money transfers to India.

The service also includes preferential exchange rates and access to rupee mortgages for Indian property purchases.

Lloyds TSB has teamed up with ICICI, the second largest bank in India, to offer the service to Britain's 1 million-strong Indian community. It is the first of its kind to be provided by a high street bank.

It says it hopes the facility will enable Indians living in the UK to better manage finances and property purchases in both Britain and India. The new service will give customers access to ICICI's network of 560 branches throughout India.

"More than 1 million Indians now live and work in the UK, and this number is on the rise," Gordon Rankin, the director of Llyods TSB community financial services, said. "The community's links with India remain strong, and many British Indians have businesses, properties and families back home which they continue to finance.

"The India banking service is designed with the needs of this community in mind, and should help a large and vital part of the population get the most out of their money."

Sonjoy Chatterjee, the managing director of ICICI bank, said: "The India banking service is a real landmark for the Indian community in Britain, and for financial services in general.

"By creating a strategic partnership with Lloyds TSB, we're demonstrating how the changing needs of customers can be met across global boundaries."

Following a successful pilot, the service is now being rolled out to branches across the UK.

Lloyds TSB will at first focus on the areas with the largest Indian populations, and the service will be available in all its branches of Lloyds TSB from the end of this month. The bank is also piloting Islamic finance products this year.

Its sharia-compliant current accounts and home finance products have been piloted in London, Birmingham, Luton and Dewsbury.

A spokesman for the bank said the pilot, which focused on areas with a large Muslim population, had also been going very well.