ICICI Bank to open its first branch in New York

ICICI Bank, India’s largest private sector bank, will be opening its first branch in the US, in New York, on Friday.

K.V. Kamath, managing director and chief executive officer, and Sonjoy Chatterjee, executive director of the bank, will be present at the opening ceremony of the branch.

The bank is listed at the New York Stock Exchange on the occasion, Kamath will be ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

Previously ICICI Bank had opened its representative office in New York. Last year in October the bank got approval from the US Federal Reserve to convert its representative office in New York to a full-fledged branch. The branch will be offering services in wholesale banking business, including trade financing and factoring services to US-based subsidiaries of Indian firms.

Mumbai-based ICICI Bank has consolidated total assets of about $115 billion (Rs.4,589.5 billion) as of Dec 31, 2007, and a market capitalization of over $30 billion.

The bank’s international presence currently extends to 19 countries and includes three wholly owned subsidiaries in Britain, Russia and Canada, offshore banking unit in Singapore, an advisory branch in Dubai International Finance Centre, branches in Bahrain, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Belgium, Qatar, Germany and representative offices in China, UAE, Bangladesh, South Africa, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.