ICICI consolidates on Lankan retail market:

Lankan banking regulations in line with other countries

Shirajiv SIRIMANE

THE per capita income in Sri Lanka is increasing while there are new investments to the country and this is one of the main reasons for the ICICI bank in India to enter the country.

DEPUTY Managing Director, Ms. ICICI, Chanda Kochhar who was in Colombo last weekend said that the bank is keen on being a major player in the retail sector. “We do not target only the Indian expatriate community,” she said.

ICICI Bank, India’s largest private sector bank, is also syndicating loans and has assisted the government to raise funds. The bank last June had a retail customer base of over 24 million and was ranked No. 1 in India for syndicated loans.

Kochhar, who is ranked 37th on Fortune’s list of Most Powerful Women in Business, said that they are also looking at providing financial assistance to Indian corporate who have set up business in Sri Lanka.

Ask how the business environment in Sri Lanka is, she said that it was very comfortable.

“The banking regulations too are in line with other countries in the region,” she said. The bank has only one branch and she said that they are also looking at increasing their branch network.

The bank has also come up with a strategy to link all ATM machines to their bank so that their customers could gain access to their account from any ATM free of charge. Voted as the Business Woman of the Year 2005 by the ‘Economic Times of India, she also said that the foreign remittance is a growing business and 20 per cent of their foreign turn over is from this sector.

“We are also looking at introducing products in Sri Lanka targeting this market,” she said.

ICICI Group as of June 30, had an asset base of US $88 billion, a market capitalization of US $ 20 billion and the Deputy Managing Director said that one of their success stories in India was the introduction of new technology.

Though there were many overseas banks rooted in India it was ICICI bank that introduced cutting edge technology to be a key player in the market. “While the Bank would introduce new technology to our customers, we are also looking at sharing some of them with Sri Lanka banks,” she said.

She identified SMART Card system where any sort of printed identification is not needed to do banking in the future. “This too would be introduced to Sri Lanka,” she said.

In developed countries banking facility for every 200 people while in developing countries this figure is somewhere between 15,000 to 20,000. “We would be using new technology both in Sri Lanka and India to reach the masses who are not into banking,” she said.

She identified SMART Card system where any sort of printed identification is not needed to do banking in the future. “This too wold be introduced to Sri Lanka”, she said. She commenced her career in 1984 with ICICI Bank. During her 23-year tenure she has held many key positions in retail banking, as well as in the Infrastructure, Project and Corporate Finance divisions of ICICI Banks.

Asked how the bank’s operations in Sri Lanka were in the first 20 months of its existence she said they were satisfactory. “We are not looking to grow overnight. It would be a steady growth”, she said.

ICICI Bank set up the International Banking Group (IBG) in the year 2002 to implement a focused strategy for its international banking business.

ICICI Bank’s international presence currently spans 18 countries and includes three wholly owned subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, Russia and Canada, offshore banking units in Singapore and Bahrain, an advisory branch in DIFC, Dubai, branches in Sri Lanka, Hong Kong and Belgium and representative offices in the United States, China, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh, South Africa, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.