ICICI Bank

ICICI Bank is a private sector bank founded in 1994 and headquartered in Mumbai. It operates 7,608 branches, with total assets of approximately Rs 2,642,241.41 crore on the latest published figures.

ICICI Bank is the second-largest private sector bank in India, operating 7,608 branches with total assets of about Rs 26.4 lakh crore. It has a long institutional history in corporate and structured lending, having originated from a development finance institution before converting to a commercial bank, and it retains meaningful capability in larger and more complex credit than a typical branch network implies.

Its role in the Credit Guarantee Scheme for Startups. ICICI Bank is one of 40 institutions registered with the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company as a CGSS Member Institution (NCGTC MLI ID 71, classified as a private sector bank). Member Institutions are the lenders that actually extend credit under the scheme: you borrow from ICICI Bank, and NCGTC guarantees ICICI Bank against your default. That guarantee is what allows the facility to be extended to a DPIIT-recognised startup without collateral, with cover of up to Rs 20 crore per borrower, being 85 percent of the amount in default on loans up to Rs 10 crore and 75 percent above that.

What this means in practice. That matters if your CGSS requirement sits at the upper end of the scheme. A facility of several crore with a non-standard structure is more likely to find an internal home here than at a lender built primarily around retail and small-ticket MSME volume. Approach the business banking or emerging corporates desk rather than a retail branch.

The terms are the bank's, not the scheme's. This is the point founders most often miss. CGSS fixes the guarantee, not the loan. The interest rate, tenure, moratorium, repayment schedule and how the Annual Guarantee Fee is passed through to you are all set by ICICI Bank under its own credit policy, and they differ materially between Member Institutions for an identical borrower. Nor does registration oblige ICICI Bank to lend: it appraises you on its normal credit standards first and applies the guarantee second. Approaching more than one Member Institution is almost always worth the effort.