In the sub prime crisis, ICICI Bank has lost $264 million (Rs 1056 crore) till Jan 2008, because of its exposure to credit derivates and investments out of the country.

In a written reply to a query in Parliament, Pawan Kumar Bansal, Minister of state for finance stated that the country’s largest private banking institution had reported the market-to-market (MTM) loss following the sub prime mortgage crisis

The bank also cleared that the investment losses as a result of unfolding global subprime crisis could erase around 9% of this year’s profit.

Analysts anticipate that the bank would register a profit of around Rs 4,000 crore in the financial year ending March 31.

To calm investors’ worries, ICICI Bank’s joint managing director Chanda Kochchar issued a statement that the bank had earmarked $70 million for sub prime losses during the last quarter to which another $50 million may be added up.

“The rest of the amount that is calculated is actually notional and not going to hit the profit and loss account,” she added.

Kochchar also stated that the bank did not have a direct exposure to sub prime assets though it was holding investment structures in support of the big Indian business houses.

According to Kochhar, ICICI Bank directly held securities with a face value of $1.6 billion and a division held securities worth $0.5 billion.

"The face value continues to remain the same because there is no default and everybody is paying as per schedule," she said.

After falling as much as 9.3% on Tuesday, touching their lowest since September 18, 2007, the shares of ICICI bank closed at Rs 971, down 5.2% on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).