The agenda when Scotiabank’s Porter meets India’s Modi

Share

Meeting with Narendra Modi is a hot ticket for business leaders. If you've won a ringside seat when India's superstar prime minister visits Canada later this month, what should you expect?

Bank of Nova Scotia's chief executive Brian Porter confirmed that he's participating in a breakfast meeting with Mr. Modi, with other business leaders. Mr. Porter will get an up-close look at India's shifting policies toward business and foreign investment – and an important one, given Scotiabank's focus on developing markets in Latin America but relatively small footprint in India.

"India has been a tough environment for foreign banks," Mr. Porter said. "There are a lot of restrictions in terms of share ownership and a lot of other things. We'd like to see the financial sector open up."

India is not yet seen as a key market for Scotiabank. Its current operations there are limited to branches in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. As well, its ScotiaMocatta division facilitates gold trading and distribution there.

Mr. Porter sees India as a potentially larger market, not only for Scotia, but for other Canadian businesses as well.

"On a macro basis, trade between our two countries could be significantly higher. If you looked at the number, you'd be shocked," he said. (Spoiler alert: It's less than $6-billion a year, or about a third of the value of trade between India and Australia).

"The U.S. is a great market, but the Pacific Alliance [the Latin American trade bloc] is the sixth largest economy in the world. Then there's India, then there's China," he said. "There's lots for Canadian business to do out there, in terms of exporting."

Asked whether he thinks he'll have the opportunity to share his views with Mr. Modi, Mr. Porter sounded upbeat: "I'm sure we'll have a vibrant, robust discussion," Mr. Porter said.