ICICI Bank has healthy capital position: Chanda Kochhar

Chanda Kochhar, Joint MD and CFO, ICICI Bank, said India’s largest private sector bank has a very healthy capital position, “In the past few days there have been rumours being circulated about ICICI Bank’s financial health in certain parts of the country. These rumours are baseless. We wanted to clarify that ICICI Bank has a very healthy capital position.”

Kochhar said ICICI Bank is the second largest bank in India with an asset base of more than Rs 4,84,000 crore. “We have been proactively raising capital and have a net worth of Rs 47,000 crore. This gives us capital adequacy of 13.4%. The regulatory requirement is 9%, which means it is at least 150% more than what is required. This is one of the highest capital adequacy positions among large Indian banks. This indicates a very strong capital position and comfortable levels of leverage at which ICICI Bank operates.”



She said the bank has already clarified about its investments in the UK subsidiary. “About 98% of them are in investment grade and above category. We have also clarified that the capital adequacy not only of ICICI Bank but also of the subsidiaries are very comfortable. Today, the Reserve Bank also clarified that ICICI Bank and its subsidiaries abroad are well and sufficiently capitalized. They also clarified that we have enough liquidity to meet the requirements of our depositors.”



The Finance Minister has also clarified that the Indian banking system is well capitalized and well regulated. “In that context, I would only like to reiterate that the rumours are quite baseless. I would like to assure all our stakeholders including depositors, and investors that we continue to have a healthy capital position and financial position. We will be able to meet everybody’s requirement and there is no cause to worry at all.”

source: http://www.moneycontrol.com/