Stepping out

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R Seetharaman, the CEO of Doha Bank, and until recently its deputy CEO, is a man with global ambitions for his institution. In the past four years, he has overseen a six-fold increase in annual net profit and a three-fold increase in shareholder equity.

Doha Bank now has 30 domestic branches, and has also expanded into new delivery channels. Its electronic E-branches provide ATMs, instant cash and cheque deposit machines, plus access to phone and internet banking, while it has three additional mobile banking units that visit different locations in Qatar to provide ATM services. Online banking has been particularly popular, and the bank recently introduced Doha Souq, a round-the-clock email offering.

Beyond Qatar, Doha Bank now operates full branches in Dubai and New York, and representative offices in Turkey, Singapore, Tokyo and Shanghai.

These locations have been chosen not only because they are major financial capitals, but because they also play a key role in Qatar's economy.

"We have been progressing across the globe, wherever Qatar has got economic linkage," Seetharaman explains. The US is a major partner in both trade and defence, Japan was the first country to take a shipment of LNG (liquefied natural gas) in 1996, while Singapore is Qatar's third-largest bilateral trade partner.

In September, the bank received an initial licence to operate in Kuwait, which would make it the sixth foreign bank to operate there if its licence is approved by the cabinet. Doha Bank is also looking to India, which has a strong connection to the peninsula not only through its geographical proximity but also through the large number of non-resident Indians who work and live there.

In May, the bank made a strategic equity investment in Select Securities, the holding company for the Select group of companies, which owns the Indian brokerage firm Investnet. "We are also looking to set up our operations with the central bank of India," says Seetharaman. Its interest in India runs both ways: in July, Doha Bank agreed a deal with Birla Sun Life to distribute the company's mutual fund products in Qatar.

Doha Bank has also beaten many of the region's banking giants to establishing a presence in China. By setting up a representative office in Shanghai, the bank is in a good position to capitalise on the country's development into one of the world's trading giants.

Seetharaman has no doubt that Doha Bank needs to be present in such major financial markets in order to thrive.

"The local market has become global," he says. "The customer has got a choice today, he may not depend on local markets. For financial services, he has got information: he is no more location-centric, he is information-centric. It has been our mission to go global."

He adds: "We look at logical expansion, wherever it is possible.

"Quite a few applications have been submitted to various regulators and effectively in the coming days we might achieve a few more licences."

On a regional level, Doha Bank recently received regulatory approval from the Qatar Financial Centre to establish a 100% subsidiary company, Doha Bank Assurance. The bank already has a sizeable market share in corporate as well as retail insurance, and now wants to expand its involvement in the sector.

"We want to get into the insurance business 100% because we thought it's good to synergise and offer real value to our relationship," says Seetharaman.

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