India’s state-owned banking firm Bank of Baroda (BoB) has decided to terminate its operations in South Africa.
Following the decision, the South African branches of BoB will stop a majority of the transactions including deposits, disbursing loans from 1 March this year and terminate all activities and business from 31 March 2018.
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In a regulatory filing, the bank said that ceasing business in South Africa is part of its strategic plan for rationalisation of overseas branches.
It also said that the decision will not have a major impact on its financials as its business in the country was not significant.
The decision, already notified to the South African central bank SARB, comes at a time when BoB is facing a regulatory probe in the country over compliance issues.
SARB, in a statement, said its Registrar is in discussions with BoB to ensure its orderly withdrawal from South Africa without impacting any depositor.
Last week, the bank said that SARB is investigating the allegations and BoB is actively cooperating in it. It is under scrutiny regarding its association with a business family that led to a political scandal.
Earlier, BoB reported a 56% fall in its net profit for the quarter that ended in December 2017. In the October-December quarter, BoB registered a profit of INR1.12bn ($17.44m).
