New Delhi, 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. A clutch of 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 lendi...