Traders body slams ICICI over Chinese central bank investment

New Delhi, Aug 18 (KNN) The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Tuesday slammed ICICI Bank for allowing Peoples Bank of China to invest in it despite strong sentiments prevailing in the country against China and its anti-India policies.

The traders body said that this is a second such instance of a Chinese Bank trying to make inroads into the Indian banking system after China's Central bank, the People's Bank of China had earlier this year made an investment in HDFC Bank.

CAIT has asked the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to direct both ICICI and HDFC bank to return the investments by Chinese Bank.

CAIT secretary general Praveen Khandelwal said that it seems quite clear that China has designed a well-planned strategy to make an intrusion into the Indian Banking sector which is quite well regulated and is very important for the financial health of the country.

''Even though the Government had introduced a mechanism to check the foreign portfolio investments, there is nothing concrete yet from the RBI to restrain and control the funding coming in from China,'' he added.

CAIT national president BC Bhartia has said that this sudden interest of China into India's Banking sector raises a strong alarm bell for the entire banking sector and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), being the custodian of India's Banking sector must now be on high alert to closely monitor this sinister strategy of China which in the long run can be detrimental to the nation.

''Certainly, the present investments might be small but we should not forget that it’s a part of China.'' he added.

 CAIT members have urged the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to take immediate cognisance of the matter and devise a policy framework to protect the sovereignty of India’s banking system.