Amid criticism of its exposure to 'toxic' assets abroad, India's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank today said its UK subsidiary has registered a $ 35 million (around Rs 160 cr) net loss for the half year ended September 30 on account of higher provisioning in its investments abroad.
"After making the required provisioning on our investments abroad, our UK subsidiary has made a net loss of $ 35 mn...(however) as on September 30, the net NPAs of this unit is zero," ICICI Bank's Joint Managing Director Chanda Kochhar told reporters here.
The UK subsidiary has a total deposit base of $4.9 bn as at September-end, out of which 39% constituted term deposits, Kochhar said.
For the second quarter, the lender posted a marginal rise of 1.1% in its net profit at Rs 1,014 cr from Rs 1,003 cr in the same quarter in the previous fiscal while the total income rose to Rs 9,712 cr as compared with Rs 9,588 cr.
In the face of challenging market conditions, the bank has been closely monitoring all segments of its operations to maintain credit quality and sustain growth in key sectors, Kochhar said.
"We are monitoring all portfolios very closely. Retail lending still constitutes 55% of our total advances...We haven't seen any major changes (in bad assets) in the last quarter," Kochhar said.
