mumbai, Aug. 10 -- Backed by a global network and wealthy clientele, India's foreign banks are flexing their muscle in attracting dollar deposits, despite their undersized presence in the local deposit market. Foreign banks, which had barely $603 million in foreign currency non-resident bank deposits on 5 June when the central bank announced the concessional dollar swap window, managed to clock $8.97 billion by 30 July. Three foreign banks -- HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, and DBS Bank India -- led the inflows. Experts said that what worked in their favour is the availability of customers across the world and access to more dollars. For local banks, attracting such deposits would entail raising money in dollars and then lending to customers for deposits. The surge is being driven by foreign banks' superior access to dollar liquidity, said Abizer Diwanji, founder at NeoStrat Advisors LLP. Global banks have much larger funding lines and counterparty credit limits with overseas institutions, allowing them to mobilise dollars quickly whenever an opportunity arises, he said. "Foreign banks have much larger limits with dollar deposit sources; so, they are able to raise much more," he said. "Every bank which raises deposits needs to have a limit with their counterparty banks. If somebody is going to place an FCNR deposit with the SBI, they need to have limits with SBI to be able to lend to SBI." Among the biggest gainers, HSBC saw outstanding FCNR deposits jump from $120.26 million to $6.26 billion, while Standard Chartered Bank, which had no FCNR(B) deposits on June 5, had mobilized $1.86 billion by 30 July. DBS Bank India more than doubled its outstanding deposits to $613.55 million from $282.67 million over the same period. On an outstanding basis-the total amount of deposits at a given point in time-private sector banks dominated the segment, with $25.7 billion in such deposits as of 30 July, up 72%, while public sector banks were close behind at $25.6 billion, a 53% increase over the period. Foreign lenders have narrowed the gap in just under two months, reflecting their ability to tap global dollar pools efficiently. Foreign banks have traditionally not been big players in the deposit market in India, with their collective share at 4.8% in end-December 2025. In comparison, state-owned banks had a market share of 57.9%, while private banks had a 36.1% share. However, Diwanji of NeoStrat believes the current trend may not permanently alter the competition. "It's only temporary," he said, adding that only foreign banks with a branch presence in India can directly mobilise such deposits under the scheme. A spokesperson for HSBC declined to comment. Emails sent to Standard Chartered Bank and DBS Bank India remained unanswered. The RBI's FCNR(B) swap facility, announced alongside temporary relaxations to attract foreign currency inflows and support the rupee, has triggered intense competition among banks to mobilise NRI deposits....