Indian Bank ICICI To Withdraw from Diamond Financing

India’s ICICI Bank has reportedly decided to pull back from financing the mid-stream sector of the diamond trade. ICICI Bank UK PLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of India’s ICICI Bank Ltd., a large private sector bank headquartered in Mumbai.

On Dec. 28, industry analyst Edahn Golan shared via Twitter a letter to the bank’s clients informing them that the Antwerp branch of ICICI Bank UK PLC would be shutting down on March 29. Clients were advised to close their accounts on or before Feb. 28.

ICICI Bank’s decision to close its Antwerp branch makes it the latest in a line of lenders pulling out of the mid-stream sector of the diamond industry, and it comes not too longer after another Indian bank, Union Bank, announced plans to close its Antwerp branch.

As Golan noted on Twitter, the departure of ICICI from Antwerp will mostly hurt traders from India, which is still feeling the aftershocks of the $2 billion bank fraud allegedly perpetrated by diamantaire Nirav Modi and his uncle, Gitanjali top boss Mehul Choksi.

Sources: News Sources