ICICI Closing Antwerp Branch In Latest Blow To Industry Financing
January 08, 19
(IDEX Online) – After more than 12 years of operations in Antwerp, India’s ICICI Bank is withdrawing from diamond trade financing.
Clients were requested at the end of December to close their accounts before the end of February as ICICI Bank UK PLC will be shutting down on March 29.
The Antwerp branch of the bank, which opened in Antwerp in May 2006, is a unit of India’s ICICI Bank Ltd. which is based in Mumbai and serves the private sector.
ICICI's decision follows that of Union Bank of India to pull out of the Antwerp diamond center. Union Bank gave notice last September that it will close its branch in the Belgian port city within a year.
The closure will hit many Indian companies in Antwerp still reeling from the fallout of the alleged $2 billion bank fraud carried out by jeweler Nirav Modi and his uncle, Mehul Choksi, the head of Gitanjali.