Royal Bank of Canada today announced that it has entered the Indian market by opening its first representative office in Mumbai, India.

RBC is taking a three pronged approach to India: to provide capital markets products and services including global debt funding to Indian banks and corporations; to provide wealth management services for high net worth individuals; and to provide correspondent banking and trade finance services to Indian financial institutions.

“The strong growth of the Indian economy presents huge opportunities,” says Gordon Nixon, RBC president and CEO. “RBC is committed to expanding outside North America into areas where we can show competitive strength and India is a natural choice for our strategy in Asia. India is showing an increasing demand for areas in which RBC has competitive strengths — infrastructure and project finance, energy, metals and mining, structured products, currency and bond trading, and wealth management services.”

Akhauri Sinha, country head, RBC India, will lead RBC’s overall operations in India, while Dipendarra J. Singh will lead RBC’s wealth management business with a focus on high net worth individuals, and Vikas Jambotkar will focus on providing RBC services to Indian financial institutions, as well as capital markets services to corporations.

With people from India comprising the second highest Asian immigrant population in Canada after China, RBC is now well positioned to help them invest back into India’s buoyant economy. “Indo-Canadians have made and continue to make a huge contribution to the fabric of Canadian life. Their presence and cosmopolitan imprint on our cities, especially Toronto and Vancouver, have been profound. They form an important, indeed critical, link between India and Canada,” says Nixon.