RBI allowed Foreign Investors to invest in South Indian Bank

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed the foreign investors to buy the shares of South Indian Bank. The permission has been given as the foreign shareholding in the bank has gone below the prescribed limit that is stipulated under the extant FDI policy.

RBI said that the FIIs (Foreign Institutional Investors), PIOs (Persons of Indian Origin) and NRIs (Non-Resident Indians) have been allowed to make investments in the primary as well as secondary markets in India through the Portfolio Investment Scheme (PIS). It also said that the South Indian Bank’s equity can also be purchased through primary market and stock exchanges. 

The ceilings on FII, NRI and PIO investments are monitored by RBI in Indian companies on a daily basis. The foreign investment ceiling limits that has fixed by RBI for effective monitoring is two percent points lower than the actual ceilings.

About South Indian Bank
South Indian Bank is one of the earliest launched banks of South India. It came into being during the Swadeshi Movement that happened in 1905 and continued till 1911.  It was created with the aim for service oriented repository of savings of the community on one hand and to free the business community from the clutches of money lenders on the other by providing need based credit at reasonable rates of interest.
• South Indian Bank is among the private banks in Kerala to become a scheduled bank in 1946 under the RBI Act
• It is the first bank in the private sector in India to open a Currency Chest on behalf of the RBI in April 1992
• It is the first private sector bank to open a NRI branch in November 1992
• It is the first bank in the private sector to start an Industrial Finance Branch in March 1993