ICICI Bank sets up Rs 100 cr fund to go green

ICICI Bank said on Thursday it has constituted a Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) loan fund for assisting companies engaged in the green business or abetting eco-friendly activity.

"This dedicated fund was set up on Wednesday, which will help small and medium enterprises to take benefit of this initiative and promote sustainable growth," ICICI Bank Deputy Managing Director Nachiket Mor told reporters on the sidelines of a CII seminar on venture capital.

The fund would provide short term or medium term loan to companies, he said adding, loan could be of any amount ranging between Rs 500,000 to Rs 40 lakhs (Rs 4 million) depending on the size of the project.

"The Rs 100 crore fund is the initial effort, let's see how we take it forward," he added.

Asked about sectors which would benefit from this scheme, he said, the bank has not identified any particular sector for lending, but the general criteria would be companies going in for energy efficiency would get the term loan irrespective of sector.

Talking about the micro-financing, Mor said, since 2006-07 result is yet to come out the absolute number is not known. However, in the previous year the bank had done financing to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion).

The bank expects significantly higher funding than the previous year, he added.

ICICI Bank, the largest lender to micro-finance institutions has lent more than Rs 4,500 crore (Rs 45 billion) to these over the past three years.