Canada's Scotiabank, India's HDFC to refer clients

TORONTO, June 19 (Reuters) - Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO) said it plans to sign a deal "shortly" with India's HDFC Bank (HDBK.BO) under which the two banks will refer customers to each other.

Scotiabank, Canada's third-largest bank, said the agreement will help it establish ties with Indians who are immigrating to Canada. In return, it plans to refer Canadian customers to HDFC Bank, which acquired smaller rival Centurion Bank of Punjab last month and now has 11 million customers and 1,167 branches in India.

Scotiabank, which has five branches in India, mainly doing commercial and corporate business, hopes to develop links with some of the roughly 30,000 Indian immigrants who move to Canada each year.

"For people who are in the process of moving halfway around the world, being able to establish an early banking relationship provides some stability in the midst of change," Rania Llewellyn, Scotiabank's vice-president of multicultural banking, said in a news release.

The agreement, which has yet to be finalized, will commit the two banks to make customer referrals "on a best-efforts basis," she told Reuters.

Canada takes in about 250,000 immigrants a year, and India is the second-largest source of new arrivals after China.

All of the Canadian banks have adopted various tactics to try to win new immigrants as clients. Measures include providing services in a host of languages, educating immigrants about bank products and services in their home countries before they leave, and obtaining referrals from immigration consultants in Canada. (Reporting by Lynne Olver; editing by Rob Wilson)