Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi to set up disaster recovery centre

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (BTMU) UFJ, Ltd, a member company of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, is looking at starting a key disaster recovery centre (DRC) out of Bengaluru which will be ready for commercial use by the middle of next year, according to sources aware of the development.

Since formally opening banking operations in Bengaluru in April this year, BTMU has been planning to build a DRC as part of its expansion and data recovery plans aimed to serve the growing needs of its customers.

The DRC will be part of a wide area network which the bank has set up as part of consolidating its data centres worldwide with large data sets being transferred between data centres as a back-up measure for critical data.

The DRC is likely to have 15-20 seats for a start which will carry out storage and retrieval functions of customer accounts which will be outsourced to the facility, sources said.

It was not clear who has been contracted to develop the software applications for the centre. Bank officials could not be contacted for comment.

BTMU currently has the biggest branch network in India among all Japanese banks. BTMU, which opened its fifth India branch in Bengaluru on April 2 this year, has had a presence in India for over 60 years. It currently has four branches in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Neemrana.

Japanese banks eye entry

Japanese banks are likely to target the Indian market more with investments from that country continuing to pour into states like Gujarat and Karnataka.
Moreover, the Japanese economy has been rapidly shrinking since 2008 and credit offtake in the Japanese market has been poor.

Japanese lenders, including Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group Inc are planning to open further branches as well as actively service corporate accounts, besides entering the investment banking space through M&A financing, IPOs as well as consultancy services in fundraising.

Japan’s Mizuho Corporate Bank which operates two branches in India plans to set up an Ahmedabad branch by June 2015. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation also has modest operations in India.