"Finance Minister P Chidambaram shares our concern he is very supportive," Kamath, whose bank is inundated with queries from customers and other investors on the financial health of the bank, said and demanded a probe by the government and the regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India.
He said he had already briefed Finance Minister P Chidambaram about the bear hammering of ICICI stock. Kamath, however, exuded confidence that he would overcome the challenge and protect all the stakeholders at any cost.
'UK arm has no exposure to US sub-prime creidt'
ICICI Bank's wholly-owned subsidiary ICICI Bank UK Plc, as part of its normal treasury operations, has a diversified investment portfolio, Kamath said.
"ICICI Bank UK Plc has zero exposure to US sub-prime credit, and zero non-performing loans," he said.
About 98 per cent of its non-India investment book of $3.5 billion is rated investment grade. In addition, it holds cash equivalent instruments of $1.1 billion.
"As on the last balance sheet date of June 30, 2008, ICICI Bank UK Plc had a capital adequacy ratio of 17.4 per cent," he said.
ICICI Bank had few weeks back made an additional provisioning of $28 million to cover its investments in the bankrupted US bank Lehman Brothers' senior bonds. This was in addition to $12 million provision previously made.
Kamath said ICICI Bank was profitable. "This was due to the strong core performance, which more than offset the impact of adverse debt and equity market conditions in India and globally since the second half of FY 2008."
"The absorption of the impact of current market conditions on investment portfolio valuation will not pose any challenge to ICICI Bank's capital position," he said.
ICICI Bank had a networth of over Rs 47,000 crore (over $10 billion) and a capital adequacy ratio of 13.4 per cent on June 30, 2008, as against the regulatory requirement of 9 per cent.
"This is among the highest levels of capital adequacy in large Indian banks. This reflects the healthy capital position and comfortable level of leverage," he said. "Its banking and non-banking subsidiaries are also well-capitalised."
Image: Finance Minister P Chidambaram with ICICI Bank CEO K V Kamath. | Photograph: Raveendran/AFP/Getty Images
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