State Bank of India (SBI) has announced that letters of credit (L/Cs) and bank guarantees feature in its exposure to eurozone institutions.

The country's largest lender says it has a US$353.6 million direct exposure in the European countries that use the euro.

L/Cs and guarantees

The bank says the L/Cs and bank guarantees have been provided to several European institutions to finance Indian exports and imports in the eurozone area.

The SBI has underlined that it is not exposed to sovereign bonds in the region.

Trade finance

The bank's greatest exposure is in Italy, where it has a US$170 million exposure in trade finance, including L/Cs, to Credito Italiano.

In Spain, SBI has a US$145 million trade finance exposure while in Ireland and Greece it is exposed to US$37 million and US$1.6 million respectively.

International exposure

The bank's international book totals US$30 billion, of which US$12 billion is in trade finance.

The state-owned bank has the largest overseas banking operations of all India's banks with offices in 156 locations worldwide.

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