Icici Bank Lines Up Uk Debut, Gets New York Nod

ICICI Bank is all set to create a presence in London after having secured licenses for setting a office in New York. While the bank has already firmed up plans to open a branch at New York, it has sought the permission of the Reserve Bank of India to open an office in London.

"We have already received the green signal from the apex bank, and are awaiting the green signal from the Financial Services Authority, in London," explained managing director and CEO, ICICI Bank, H N Sinor. "We expect an approval in another months time and will be in a position to open a full fledged operational centre in London in another four to five month. The representative office in New York is expected by the end of 2001", he added.

Initially, the presence in London will be in the form of a representative office undertaking bill discounting and trade finance, this will later be transformed to a full fledged ICICI Bank branch in another 10 to 12 month. "We see tremendous opportunities from Indian traders as well as Britons interested in business deals with India. A presence in London will help us build business relation and create a ground for expanding our operations there," Sinor added.

Initially the license for operation at London will be for a representative office that will be graduated to a branch license and the whole process takes around 10 months to a year depending on the performance of the representative office at London. Issuance of the initial license will depend on various parameters and soundness of the bank and officials from Financial Services Authority are at present examining the fundamentals of ICICI Bank.

Meanwhile, the bank has also started marketing non-life insurance products from its insurance arm ICICI Lombard General Insurance through all its bank branches. The bank also sold 500 life policies this year through its branches.

Thrust at ICICI Bank is on retail products where the bank aims at providing a whole range of product to meet every financial requirement of its clients. Deposit base at the bank is Rs 13,000 crore which company officials at the bank expect to reach Rs 17,800 crore by the end of the fiscal.