Scope for rupee invoicing to grow in India-Middle East corridor: Stanchart India CEO

MUMBAI: Standard Chartered India chief executive officer PD Singh sees the India–Middle East trade corridor as a promising one for the adoption of rupee invoicing, even though the shift remains gradual. “It is picking up in Middle Eastern corridors and could expand in future, much like how Chinese yuan invoicing became common in solar equipment trade,” he said, adding that the move was steady but not yet large-scale.

The bank is also strengthening its role in foreign exchange clearing. Singh said Standard Chartered, already one of the largest players globally, would soon launch US dollar clearing from GIFT City. “We are the number one or two in GBP and Euro clearing for the Indian Banking system. Outside the G3 currencies, the rupee is the biggest in correspondent banking flows. With 33 Indian banks as partners, this positions us strongly as a clearing bank,” Singh said.

On energy trade, Singh said India could absorb the cost impact of diversifying away from Russian crude if sanctions tightened and the issue was more about the country’s independence. “If India were to switch entirely to US oil, the additional cost would be about $6–7 billion. In the broader context of the Indian economy, that is not a very large number. From the bank’s standpoint, we will not deal with sanctioned entities,” he said.

Commenting on US visa policy, Singh said it was too early to assess the impact of changes to H1B rules or the proposed US HIRE Act but added that India remained a hub for global capability centres (GCCs). “We are banking five to seven new GCCs every month, and in our own centres in Chennai and Bangalore we employ around 24,000 people. India today is not just a cost hub, it is a skills hub,” he said. Offshoring momentum, he added, was now driven by India’s talent pool across technology, operations, and financial services.

On the bank’s India retail plans, Singh said it was focused on multi-product relationships, and shunning single-product clients. The bank is revamping its wealth and priority banking offerings, setting up 21 new priority centres this year, and targeting global Indians.

In wholesale banking, the bank remains focused in project finance, trade finance, custody, and debt capital markets, while scaling up its correspondent banking franchise. Singh pointed out that about 20% of Standard Chartered’s global sustainable financing originates from Indi “Overall, our plan is to build long-term in India, invest in talent, digitize further, and strengthen our position across both corporate and retail segments,” Singh said.