The lender, India's second-largest, opened its first Hong Kong branch on Tuesday and sees great opportunities in greater China, which its executives said is expected to have trade with India of up to $18 billion this year.
The bank has branches in London, Canada and Singapore but before opening the Hong Kong branch had only a representative office in China, to which foreign lenders are flocking to the country's strong economy and $1.7 trillion in personal savings.
"Singapore was probably a better known market for US and we went there first," Kamath said at a media briefing, adding that the bank soon realised Hong Kong was the gateway to North Asia.
"It took us a little longer (to enter the Chinese market) than it should have, but we scale up pretty fast so better late than never," he said.
Bank of America Corp., HSBC Holdings Plc. and a host of other banks have spent billions of dollars investing in Chinese lenders but ICICI would prefer to spend money on its own operations, Kamath said.
"China becomes a business opportunity, rather than an investment opportunity," he said.
ICICI has correspondent banking links with Bank of Communications Co., Bank of China and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, three of the country's five biggest lenders.
The bank's Hong Kong branch will focus on serving its Indian clients with operations in the territory, and ICICI just signed a business cooperation agreement to provide its client with service through the China branches of Bank of East Asia Ltd.
"Follow the customer is the core strategy," Kamath said. "The pace at which (India-China trade) is growing is something that every banker needs to take seriously."
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