Axis Bank, India’s third largest private sector bank, has opened a representative office in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

Shri Vipul, Consul General of India in Dubai, inaugurated the representative office. The representative office in Sharjah is the third such Axis Bank office in the UAE after Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The new representative office will engage primarily in promoting the Bank's retail products and services to non-resident Indians (NRIs).

The Sharjah representative office will not only service the NRIs in the emirate, but will also help effectively service customers in other northern emirates of Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah.

The UAE has the largest NRI community in the world with a dynamic and diverse population base of 3.3 million NRIs. Sharjah is the third largest emirate in the UAE after Dubai and Abu Dhabi. As per estimates, approximately 0.65 million NRIs reside in the emirate of Sharjah. A large number of them commute daily to Dubai for work.

Rajiv Anand, executive director, Axis Bank, said: “Personal banking transactions, including remittances between the UAE to India, have been growing continuously. Opening of the representative office in Sharjah will further extend our presence in the UAE and provide clients easier access to the Bank’s services in the region. The representative offices in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and now Sharjah, will complement the services being offered to NRI clients by the DIFC branch in Dubai.”

The remittances market size between the UAE and India is about $12 billion with Axis Bank having a market share of about 20 per cent. With a focus on facilitating faster and efficient remittances to India by the Bank’s NRI customers in the UAE, Axis Bank has also tied up with 31 banks and exchange houses in the UAE. – TradeArabia News Service