Indian Banks hit by credit crunch

Is Indian banks too hit by credit crunch? Latest in the news is ICICI....

MUMBAI (Reuters) - ICICI Bank, India's second largest bank, had an exposure to foreign markets equal to about 4 percent of its total balance sheet, and it had the capability to handle market movements, a top official said.

The bank can still post healthy profits and maintain healthy capital adequacy, joint managing director Chanda Kochhar said on television news channel NDTV Profit on Thursday.

"The size of the exposure is very, very small related to the size of our balance sheet," she said, later adding there were no medium or long-term worries about solvency.

She said the bank's overseas units had exposure to foreign markets and its Indian operations were insulated.

The bank said, which total consolidated assets worth $103 billion, on Tuesday said it held 57 million euros ($81 million) of senior bonds issued by Lehman Brothers, and would increase its provision on the debt by about $28 million to cover half of that exposure.

Brokerage Edelweiss Capital said it expected ICICI to post about $200 million in losses on bonds, including debt issued by Lehman.