U.S banks in India deny illegalities.

Citicorp and BankAmerica Corp. have denied being involved in illegal securities transactions in India.

The statements from the U.S. banking giants came this week after Indian regulators began to audit their accounts and those of two other international banks as part of a crackdown on irregular securities trading that has rocked the Indian stock market.

Citicorp and BankAmerica have four branches each in India - in Madras, Bombay, New Dehli, and Calcutta.

The U.S. banks, together with Standard Chartered PLC of Britain and ANZ Grindlays Ltd. of Australia, dominate bond-market trading, according to the Reserve Bank of India.

Citicorp accounted for 23% of some 58,000 transactions on the Indian securities market since April 1991, the central bank said this week. BankAmerica's share was 16%, Standard Chartered's 18%, and ANZ Grindlays' 8%

News reports from India said the investigation is focusing on trading and lending among foreign banks, Indian banks, and stockbrokers.

Standard Chartered has said it may have lost as much $309 million from the securities-related operations. ANZ has estimated a $135 million loss.

On Tuesday, Citicorp stated that "it is not involved in the banking system irregularities ... under investigation by the regulators in India."

|Normal Practice'

It added that the central bank's appointment of external auditors to examine its books is a "normal practice in such situations."

BankAmerica issued a similar denial.

Indian banking regulations and practices have failed to keep pace with a boom in domestic securities trading in recent years. That failure is said to have opened the way for fraud.

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