ICICI Bank among soundest int'l fin institutions: KV Kamath

ICICI Bank fell 20% on Friday. KV Kamath, Managing Director and CEO, ICICI Bank, said that ICICI Bank is very well-capitalised at 150% of the requirement. He added that the bank is among the soundest financial institutions in the world.



Kamath feels the anatomy of rumours suggest they are intended to destabilize the bank. He said that the bank will continue to report malicious messages to the regulators, and that rumours are being spread by a market intermediary, and not by any bank.



Kamath said that the worry is that such things can be done to other financial institutions as well. He added that he can see a clear patter of disinformation which is a cause for worry. Rumours are playing negatively on the sentiment of people, he said.



Kamath clarified that there has not been any drastic decline in deposits in the last three weeks. He said their morale will remain high, and that the bank will continue to fight for its customers. He added that call rates had gone up to 22–24% due to high liquidity crunch and the long-term shareholders have not sold any stocks recently. He further said that no senior management has sold shares in the last nine months.