INDIA's Lack of Subprime SLIME

ICICI Bank CEO, K.V. Kamath's response to a 5/02/08 interview question regarding the Indian banking system's exposure to 'mark to market' derivative losses (including those asset writedowns/'mark-downs' related to problems in the credit markets stemming from the U.S. subprime-led housing recession):

"The total size of the investment in these instruments by the Indian banking system will be Less than 1% of the banking assets. So, I don’t know whether we should be worried about it at all. Underlying credit quality has not deteriorated, these are book losses. The size of it makes it not really relevant. Just to put it in context, when banks had a non-performing assets problem, that problem was 25% to 40% of the balance sheet of the bank (...KV is probably referring to the current situation faced by many of the major U.S. and European banks that have already wrote down BILLIONS of shoddy securities including mortgage-backed assets...namely companies like Citigroup, UBS, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, the artist formerly known as Bear Sterns, etc...). So, by that standard, this is not a problem that you should be worried about."
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*In the same interview K.V. Kamath also commented on India's Largest Barrier to Uninterrupted GROWTH:

"The main challenge is INFRASTRUCTURE. Within infrastructure, item number one is electricity generation. Power is the main constraint as projects are of long gestation. There are other challenges as well like environmental assessment and raw material supply."

http://sify.com/finance/fullstory.php?id=14663462

Data Courtesy: Sify.com
Full Disclosure: I own shares of IBN.