ICICI''s Growth Signals Global Presence Not Far Off

India''s ICICI Bank will double its overseas business in the next three years but is not ready to become a truly global bank in the mould of HSBC or Citigroup, says the bank''s chief executive. Currently the bank is still small in comparison to the biggest international giants. The bank''s assets jumped 40% to US$79-billion in March, 2007, from US$56.3-billion a year earlier. But those figures still pale in comparison to Citigroup''s US$1,884-billion in assets.

Still, the bank has already quickly established itself on the global scene. ICICI opened representative offices in London and New York in 2002 and has since gained a foothold in 18 countries including the U.K, Russia, the U.S., China, Malaysia and Indonesia.In the past three years, the proportion of the bank''s assets arising from foreign operations has grown from almost nothing to 18%, or US$17-billion.The pace of growth has been quick but ICICI is not done on the global scene yet.