Greece’s Eurobank will be opening a representative office in Mumbai, on May 21, to be inaugurated by the President of the Republic of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides. The decision to enter India builds on the India-EU free trade agreement announced in January this year.

It aims to strengthen trade and investment between India and Cyprus, while assisting Indian companies to build their products and servings across the EU region, while positioning Greece and Cyprus as strategic entry points.

Eurobank has commenced a cross-border remittance service from Greece to India through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), becoming the first Greek and Cypriot Bank to enable cross border remittances to India using the UPI platform. This would assist Indians or corporates working in Greece to use the UPI platform to transfer funds to India, officials said.

The Bank will be advancing initiatives to strengthen economic partnerships between Greece, Cyprus and India, while supporting the India-Middle-East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC).

Eurobank CEO Fokion Karavias told media that “the Bank had no plans at this stage to approach the Reserve Bank of India for a commercial banking licence in India.”

Eurobank’s chief representative officer in Mumbai and country head Tridib Saha said, “There is a huge upside in terms of trade between Greece and India. The bilateral trade between India and Greece is expected to be between $3-4 billion."

"We want to deepen and take advantages of the opportunities which exist,” Saha added.

Eurobank officials said discussions are on with several leading Indian companies – particularly in the education, dairy, hospitality and the film industry – to foster a long-term presence and investment activity in Cyprus. Karavias said, "In the new geo-political and trade landscape, India has a prominent place as a pillar of stability and a strategic partner for Europe for seamless global trade."

Cyprus is among the top ten investors in India, with cumulative investments of over 16 billion euros over the last two decades. These investments are in sectors such as services, technology, shipping, real estate and pharmaceuticals.

Fairfax Financial Holdings, led by Prem Watsa, is one of the largest anchor investors in Eurobank. Fairfax Digital Services, a Fairfax company, is a strategic advisor in linking business and technology ecosystems between India and Europe, in collaboration with NPCI International.

Eurobank has a Global Delivery Centre in Pune, developed in collaboration with LTM (formerly LTIMindtree) and Fairfax Digital Services.