India's high economic growth momentum to continue: Kochhar

ICICI Bank chief Chanda Kochhar has said that the Indian economy would continue to see robust upward momentum in the years to come and the lender was well prepared to leverage from the potential growth opportunities.

"Looking ahead, we see strong fundamentals driving sustained high growth in India for several years to come. Kochhar said in her annual letter to shareholders.

"There would continue to be periodic challenges on account of global developments, volatility in capital flows, inflation and other factors. However, the underlying momentum of our demographic dividend and investment potential will support robust growth over the long-term," she added.

In the letter published in the bank's annual report for 2010-11, Kochhar further said that the ICICI group was well prepared to leverage from the growth opportunities to be presented by the economy's upward move.

Meanwhile, a bank spokesperson said in a statement that ICICI has complied with the regulatory norms with regard to its borrower exposure limit.

The comments were made in connection with ICICI Bank's disclosure in its annual report that "the bank exceeded the single borrower limit of 15% of capital funds to Reliance Industries Limited".

The spokesperson said "the applicable guidelines specifically permit banks to take additional exposure of 5% of capital funds beyond the limit of 15%, with the approval of their boards."

"ICICI Bank has complied with this requirement while taking exposure to Reliance Industries Ltd. The bank's exposure RIL has been within the limits permitted by regulations and the Bank's board at all points of time," he added.

Noting that the limit was exceeded with the board's prior approval, the bank had said in the annual report that the exposure to RIL came down to 12.4% and within the limit as on March 31, 2011 -- the last date of the fiscal.

ICICI Bank shares today rose 0.4% to close at Rs 1,039.35 at the BSE in a flat market, where the benchmark Sensex closed 2.51 points or 0.01% down at 18,266.03 points.