6 October 2000

ICICI presents to RBI plans to become a bank
Mumbai: ICICI, represented by its managing director, Mr. K. V. Kamath, is understood to have made a detailed presentation to the RBI about its seven-year plan to comply with statutory requirements that will help transform itself into a bank.

The company stated that it would meet its Rs 40,000 crore commitment towards 25 per cent statutory liquidity ratio (SLR), the 8.5 per cent cash reserve ratio (CRR) and 40 per cent priority sector lending norms, in the seven year period. However, it wants to become a bank through a reverse merger with ICICI Bank immediately and is ready to adhere to all the statutory norms on incremental assets and liabilities.

It is also understood that the RBI, on its part, did not make any commitment, since ICICI is expected to make a second round of presentations soon with the final merger plan.

ICICI argued that such a huge amount of money (Rs 40,000 crore) cannot be raised from the market overnight and hence it would require seven years to comply with the norms. According to the ICICI estimate, after fulfilling all norms, its asset size will jump to Rs 1.2 lakh crore.

While pleading that the proposed bank should not be tied down with the CRR and PLR obligations on its existing balance sheet, since it did not have demand liabilities, ICICI stated that is ready to comply with all regulatory norms on an incremental basis as it will have access to demand deposits and can offer cheque facility to its customers once it becomes a bank.

4 October 2000