Overseas briefs: ICICI Bank exits Russia, ABN AMRO to re-enter India, slowdown in bank lending to Ch

Banking Day staff
  • India's largest private sector lender, ICICI Bank, has sold its profit-making Russian subsidiary ICICI Bank Eurasia to Sovcombank, marking its exit from Russia. Online Indian news site Business Standard reports "the bank board has approved sale of the bank's non-material wholly-owned banking subsidiary in Russia, to Sovcombank." The sale was concluded on March 17. With this deal, ICICI Bank is left with operations in 18 countries, including its home territory of India. According to sources, the bank will cater to Russian clients through its subsidiaries in other countries.

  • The Reserve Bank of India has conveyed its 'In-Principle' approval to ABN AMRO Bank NV, allowing the reconstituted Netherlands-headquartered global bank to re-establish a wholly-owned subsidiary in India. According to the Indian business news site Business Standard, the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council had lobbied the government to grant a banking licence to ABN Amro Bank, which remains one of the largest financiers to the diamond industry and jewellery, locally and globally.

  • A quarterly report from the Bank for International Settlements said cross-border lending by banks to China from June to September 2014 was up 40 per cent year-on-year but rose only three per cent from the previous quarter. Claims on Chinese banks, as tracked by the BIS consolidated banking statistics, decreased in the third quarter. This was driven by a decline in claims on Chinese banks, suggesting that efforts by authorities to tighten credit conditions in the banking sector are started to have an impact. The previous BIS quarterly report showed China had become the largest emerging market destination for international bank lending, accounting for more than a quarter of all cross-border claims on all emerging market economies.