SHANGHAI: To help Indian and Chinese corporates in cross-border businesses, top private sector lender ICICI Bank opened its first branch in China, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Based in Shanghai, China's biggest city and a major global financial hub, the new branch would begin with 17 banking professionals handling different functions including corporate banking, operations, finance and treasury.

ICICI Bank, the country’s largest private sector lender, has after a rise in bad loans during 2014-15 decided to change its lending and underwriting norms, to contain the rise in its non-performing assets (NPAs) and the restructuring book.

Under the new norms, it will be more careful in lending to the construction sector. “In this space, where there are lots of receivables, things have got delayed, which in turn has put pressure on those companies, leading to devolvement of guarantees. That is one sector, where one has to be a bit careful,” said N S Kannan, executive director, in an analyst conference call.

India's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank is set to expand its Chinese presence with the opening of a branch this weekend in Shanghai, China's biggest city and a major global financial hub.

The branch is likely to be inaugurated on Saturday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on a three-day visit to China. ICICI Bank's Managing Director and CEO Chanda Kochhar will also be present.

Eminent banker K V Kamath was today appointed as head of the USD 50 billion New Development Bank being set up by the five emerging economies of BRICS grouping.

Kamath will have a five year term of the bank, which is likely to be operationalised within one year, Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said.

After being bogged down by asset quality worries for more than two years, private sector lenders got a breather in January-March quarter having reported no large increase in bad loans. Barring the biggest player, ICICI Bank, most lenders reported steady gross non-performing assets for the quarter.

HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, YES Bank and Federal Bank reported steady gross NPAs. ICICI Bank saw a rise in gross NPAs to R15,097 crore (3.78% of loans) from R10,554 crore (3.4%) in the previous quarter. Bulk of its bad loans came from restructured portfolio during the quarter. Consequently, provisions rose a massive 88% to Rs 1345 crore.

ICICI Bank’s Q4FY15 profit after tax at Rs 29 bn (up 10% year-on-year) came marginally below our estimate due to higher provisions. However, the quarter was characterised by improved operating performance, and incremental stress (albeit high) did not stray beyond guidance.

Key highlights were: (i) operating profitability (ex-treasury, lease, other income) clocked a healthy growth (>19% versus lower teens in Q3) on improving NIMs (up 11bps quarter-on-quarter to 3.57%) and controlled opex (up mere 8% y-o-y); (ii) fresh stress (fresh slippages and restructuring) was restricted to R22.5 bn, however, higher slippages from restructured book at 22.5 bn (R7.8 bn in Q3FY15) kept the stress elevated (but within guidance).

NEW DELHI: ICICI Bank rallied as much as 6.7 per cent in trade on Tuesday to post its best percentage gain in a year on value buying, as analysts across Dalal Street remained positive on the stock despite weak asset quality concerns.

ICICI Bank, the country's largest private sector bank by assets, on Monday posted a 10% rise in March quarter earnings, in the previous session, but a jump in provision for bad loans and a surge in gross non-performing assets spoilt the show for the bank a bit.

Private sector lender ICICI Bank on Monday reported a 10% rise in net profit on standalone basis at Rs 2,922 crore for the January-March quarter.

It had posted Rs 2,652 crore profit in the fourth quarter of the 2013-14 fiscal.

ICICI Bank has launched iWear, a application for smart watches. This is available for Android watch users and can be downloaded from the Google Playstore. It will also be available on Apple watches.

A few days ago, HDFC Bank had said its mobile banking app will be available on the Apple Watch, which is yet to be launched in India. HDFC Bank’s mobile banking app has about 75 features and those commonly used will be available in the watch, such as balance enquiry, re-charge of pre-paid mobile phones, cheque book request, account statement as well as paying utility bills.

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) boasts nearly a tenth of ownership in listed banks in the country. As per data compiled by FE, the insurance giant’s latest cumulative possession in 33 listed banks is more than 9% and valued at close to R83,069 crore, based on Friday’s closing prices.

The latest ownership as of March 2015 is considered for the compilation, barring six for which data were available as of December 2014.

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