According to an Export-Import Bank of India study, the basic factors hampering financial exports by India are lack of proper budgeting and revenue targeting for such projects, failure of Indian institutions to establish consulting arms and lack of resources to invest in export marketing. To make their presence felt, the study recommends that Indian financial firms enter into strategic alliances with leading consulting firms in the developed countries and jointly bid for projects abroad.

The marketing strengths of the global firms coupled with the practical experience of Indian companies would allow the country to increase its share in world exports of financial services. Achieving any breakthrough seems an uphill task. India'searnings from financial exports pale into insignificance when compared to the $ 3.6 billion provided in 1997 by multilateral agencies for developing the financial sector in world economies and building infrastructure for this industry. The EXIM Bank study observes that even after factoring in half of this amount ($ 1.8 billion) which is disbursed towards consulting fees for financial services projects, a huge potential remains to be tapped by Indian firms and institutions.

``Indian firms lack a conscious effort to boost financial exports. As a result, India's share in world exports of such exports is negligible,'' Kuntal Sur from EXIM Bank's planning and research group said. EXIM Bank recommends that Indian financial firms should take an active interest in marketing their ideas and concepts to potential overseas companies. This entails more visits to multilateral agencies and regular meetings with clients. This strategy has worked for many European and American companies, who have have edge over theirIndian counterparts on account of relevant experience in the field. These firms and institutions have been able to bag key projects and surprisingly even some micro-credit schemes targeted towards small enterprises.

Currently, export of financial services is mainly undertaken with the limited objective of providing some managers an opportunity to do a stint abroad and enable them to generate some savings. Most of these companies are able to spare 3-4 people for 2-3 months at a time for such projects. Many of the larger projects require 10-20 professionals over a six-month to one-year time frame, the study opines. At the administrative level, it is suggested that the commerce ministry should treat financial exports as a thrust area and Indian embassies abroad actively assist in identifying projects in their countries and support Indian corporate bids for such projects.