Who hasn’t heard the name ICICI? The world famous Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI) Bank, recently had a tough time dealing with the unexpected rumors, spread all over the market, pin pointing the financial condition of the bank.

Although, it’s the largest Private sector bank- in market capitalization, and second largest overall in terms of assets in India, still there were malicious rumors related to its financial health in the domestic market.

ICICI Bank has total assets of about USD 100 Billion (end-Mar 2008), as the new reduced cash reserve ratio is implemented the bank has an additional liquidity of more than Rs 2,500 crore. Rumors about the withdrawal of the UK insurance business partner, Prudential PLC was at a height on Friday.

When the sensex is declining steeply, then, it’s next to impossible that any company resists itself at an upper level, and therefore, ICICI was no exception on 8th and 10th October, as the sensex slipped down to 366.80 and 800 respectively on Wednesday and Friday.

Actually, all the depositors were so tensed on seeing the gradual decline in the share market, that, when the rumors stating the “bad” condition of such a dynamic bank came out, then, people were in no state to think as they had already lost a lot of money and therefore, they just wanted to save as much money as they can.

Some statements were also released by the MD Chandra Kochhar in which she mentioned that, the Bank has given loans against strong assets. On Sunday the Bank officials have taken some strict actions against the brokers and websites that ultimately created these ‘good for nothing’ rumors.

Since many years, the Bank has been showing upward trends which even lead Credit Rating Agencies like Standard & Poor’s and Moody, to say that, there are no sub-prime risks even in the overseas branches. Some measures have also been taken by the government, to show its confidence in the bank like the government asked its companies to increase their deposits in the bank.

But, despite these rumors, the bank is now again set with all the speculations settled down. The bank has definitely shown that, it cannot be affected adversely under any circumstances.

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