The Monetary Authority of Singapore has granted a qualified full banking status to India's ICICI Bank.

The mandate allows ICICI to offer retail banking services in the city-state. It is second Indian entity to acquire such an authorisation from MAS since the State Bank of India was given the same two years ago. It complements the existing partnership between the two countries which opens up their financial sectors to each other. Conversely, Indian regulators gave Singapore bank DBS the licence to open eight branches in the South Asian country recently.

"In the near term, the bank will focus on increasing its presence in the corporate, commercial, wealth management, and direct banking businesses both in Singapore and the rest of the ASEAN by capitalising on the strong trade and investment flows with India," ICICI said in a statement.

ICICI's Singapore branch is its first outside of India and employs around 50 staff.