The Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI), the first development finance institution in the private sector, came to be set up in January 1955, with the backing and funding of the World Bank. The primary objective of ICICI was to develop small and medium industries in the private sector. After the merger of ICICI with its banking unit ICICI Bank in 2004 most of DFI functions are being performed by commercial banks and these commercial banks are actively involved in project financing like a Development Financial institution (DFI) along with commercial bank products like SB account, Current account, term deposits, credit cards, personal and business banking products and services, etc.
To achieve its goals, ICICI gives financial assistance in various forms such as:
- Provides long-term and medium-term loans in terms of the rupee and foreign currency loans.
- ICICI participates in equity capital and debentures.
- It offers merchant banking services.
- It offers assistance through direct subscriptions/underwriting to debentures/ shares.
- It offers credit facilities to indigenous manufacturers.
- It guarantees to suppliers of equipment and loans from other private investment sources/foreign lenders.
- It offers a variety of financial services such as deferred credit, leasing credit, installment sale, asset credit, and venture capital.
- It conducts techno-economic surveys for backward areas.
ICICI set up ICICI Asset Management Company Limited in 1993. Later, the joint venture with Prudential Plc, one of the UK’s largest players in the financial services sector, established ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company (ICICI Prudential Mutual Funds) in 1998. It also set up two subsidiaries, ICICI Investors Services Ltd., and ICICI Banking Corporation Limited in 1994. The Bank’s wholly-owned subsidiary ICICI Bank UK Plc has nine branches in the United Kingdom and a branch each in Belgium and Germany. ICICI Bank Canada has nine branches. ICICI Bank Eurasia, our Russian subsidiary, is headquartered in Moscow with a branch in St. Petersburg.
In December 1990, the Asian Development Bank provided a $120 million line of credit to the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India Limited (ICICI) to augment its foreign exchange resources to finance development projects of private enterprises. The loan aimed primarily to assist the modernization and expansion of existing production facilities and to serve new industrial projects with outstanding economic merit designed to introduce new technology into India. This was the bank’s second loan to ICICI and broadly followed the pattern of the first loan. The second loan became effective in February 1991 and was closed in January 1995. The Second Industrial Credit Project for India by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) provided a second loan of $10 million to ICICI to replenish its foreign exchange resources. The World Bank provided a loan equivalent to twenty-five million US dollars to the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI), on September 13, 1967. The loan helped ICICI with additional foreign exchange for loans and investments in private industrial enterprises in India.
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