ICICI Bank gets nod for US branch

MUMBAI: ICICI Bank has received the green signal to convert its representative office in New York into a full-fledged branch.

The US Federal Reserve has given the go-ahead for the bank to engage in wholesale banking business, including trade financing and factoring services to US-based subsidiaries of Indian firms, agencies reported.

ICICI is the fourth bank, after State Bank of India, Bank of India and Bank of Baroda and the first in more than four years, to receive a branch licence in the US. All the banks have branches in New York.

Newly promoted joint managing director and chief financial officer of ICICI Bank Chanda Kochhar said, “The US is a very important market for us as corporate India is expanding business there. It’s been two years since we applied for the licence and we were waiting for this.”

However, ICICI Bank will have to get the nod from the Office of the Comptroller of Currency (OCC) before starting operations in the US, Kochhar said.

The OCC is a bureau of the United States Department of Treasury, which regulates and supervises banks in the US.

Branches are usually granted licence on a reciprocal basis, and recently the commerce minister had complained that the US had not given enough licences to India, despite many US banks operating in India for years.

ICICI Bank is listed on the NYSE and is the largest private secor bank in India.