If there is one sure-fire sell signal these days, it is a bank chief executive with a vision. K.V. Kamath has it in spades. During 12 years at the helm, he has transformed Mumbai’s ICICI Bank into an international brand with a series of firsts: the first bank in India to offer online banking, the first Indian company to list in New York. But, as the global credit squeeze has intensified, investors have systematically targeted institutions with ideas above their station. Down about three-quarters this year, ICICI has underperformed the region’s banks by about half and, trading at about 0.7 times book value, has the lowest price/book ratio of its peers.

Chastened, Mr Kamath has reined back balance sheet growth while shoring up capital ratios – ICICI has an enviably high tier one ratio of 11 per cent. Monday’s second-quarter figures showed that the core business remains in decent shape. Net income was fractionally up, beating forecasts, as resilient fee income and higher lending rates offset investment losses and slowing credit growth. The cost line, too, was not that of a megalomaniac – operating expenses were down 12 per cent, year-on-year.