ICICI Bank has relentlessly pursued customer focused strategies, innovative mechanisms and market penetration approaches to reach its current position. Today it has a global presence and a rich customer base spanning 19 countries including India, through its combination of banking subsidiaries, branches and representative offices.
The international banking group has been one of the strategic arms of ICICI Bank. The subgroup NRI (Non-resident Indian) services has been an engine of growth for this segment, thanks to the strong business model it has adopted.
Today, ICICI Bank NRI Services has established a strong franchise among NRIs by offering a comprehensive product suite, technology enabled access, a wide distribution network in India and alliances with local banks in several overseas markets. In 2008, the Asian Banker association accorded recognition to this subgroup for “business modeling and revenue distribution”.
The genesis
ICICI Bank NRI Services was formally launched in 2001 to provide a one-stop service point to address the home-linked financial needs of the NRI population. At a bank level, the establishment of the NRI Services group was a key step in adding international revenue streams and diversifying risks across geographies. The NRI product suite quickly evolved to include a variety of products, addressing the entire gamut of financial needs of this overseas community.
Business model
ICICI Bank, in its remittance and NRI product suites, has built a very comprehensive service architecture around the various segments of the migrant population that is unrivaled in Asia. What differentiates ICICI Bank from the rest is the NRI lifecycle approach that clearly segments the NRI cycle and aligns specific products and services to it. ICICI Bank has a full-fledged customer relationship management programme that makes use of a rich database for targeted marketing and effective segmentation to deliver superior products and services that contributes to a strong bottom line performance for the Bank. The NRI service team ensures regular contact and communication with the NRI both in the country of residence as well as every time they visit India.
Remittances is a regular need across the lifecycle of an NRI Customer. In FY 08, India was the largest remittance receiving country in the world, with total inward remittances pegged at over $46bn, which is a clear indication of the market potential of this need. To address this, a dedicated team constantly explores the optimum products and services enabling the customer to remit money in the fastest and most convenient manner possible.
Today, ICICI bank, in addition to providing the innovative online remittance product – Money2india, has launched innovative products like Instant Branch Transfers which enable the NRIs to transfer money to beneficiaries having accounts with ICICI Bank on a real time basis and the “Easy Receive” account which was developed for the convenience of the beneficiary in India. ICICI Bank remittance offerings simplify the end to end procedure of a remittance, whereby an NRI can initiate, track and confirm the completion of remittance to the beneficiary.
ICICI Bank offers a product suite, which is, one of the most comprehensive in the marketplace, and is designed to cater to its target segments at all stages of the lifecycle. Along with basic NRI product offerings in the form of NRE/ NRO Savings and Term deposits, the bank also offers segmental offerings, as a result of extensive research undertaken to determine the exact banking needs of a customer.
ICICI Bank is the first Indian bank to offer the twin account facility under the Global Indian Account umbrella, which consists of an NRE savings account and a current account in the country of the customer. Access to the account by way of debit card, internet banking password, cheque books and operating instructions are given to the customer over the counter in India before he goes overseas. Further, instance remittance facility is offered between the current account in the overseas country and the Easy Receive account to conveniently transfer money to India. This facility is now available for US and UK customers, and will soon be launched in Canada. The global Indian account offers seamless banking for the NRI and takes away the worry of opening a bank account in a new country.
NRI Edge, launched last year is a premium product proposition through which various benefits are offered to NRIs. These include platinum debit card, priority servicing, travel and medical insurance as a bundled value offering.
Customer relationship
ICICI Bank is one of the few Indian banks to offer round the clock dedicated customer service for the NRI segment through toll free numbers in major geographies, which helps resolve customer queries and provides assistance at every stage. ICICI Bank also has a superior Internet platform, which caters to commonly used customer transactions within the comfort of their homes. The Click2Call initiative is the first of its kind in the industry, wherein the customer only has to click a link and provide his details and the customer representative gets in touch with him within 30 minutes.
ICICI Bank endeavours to engage actively with its customers and provide complete financial solutions, according to their needs. The e-Relationship Manager (eRM) initiative has been launched by the bank, envisioned as the single point of contact for the customer’s banking needs. This facility is offered to select customers only as of now. The eRM not only provides information about products and assists the customer with all his banking needs, but also performs goodwill gestures like wishing the customer on special occasions. The bank has created a special relationship base through this proposition.
It has been observed that the NRI customer seeks information on taxation and in particular, his Indian investments, which he may not have easy access to from his country. Keeping this need of the customer in mind, the team has launched a unique initiative known as Webinars (web-seminars) on a periodic basis, wherein industry experts are invited to disseminate information. Through webinars, the customer can listen to the expert and obtain his queries on a real time basis from his home. For customers in India, live seminars are conducted during high NRI footfall seasons, which vary across the country. These initiatives give the bank an opportunity to engage with the customer in person, thus fostering a long lasting relationship.
Investment and insurance products
For financially savvy investors, ICICI Bank provides the 3-in-1 trading account (demat, trading and bank accounts coupled into one account) through ICICIDirect.com, which allows an NRI to invest in equity, futures and options, IPOs and other financial products on a real time basis. This offers the customer an efficient and hassle free trading platform.
The NRI seeks gains through trading, but also needs alternate long term and high return investment options through the property market in India. For these customers, ICICI Bank offers a wide variety of Mortgages and Property Search products to find, fund and insure their homes in India.
The bank also offers to some eligible customers the Life Insurance and General Insurance products to provide safety and security of the NRI’s family and assets in India. This includes investment and savings plans, retirement plans and child plans, as well as home and health insurances for his and his dependents in India to avoid any financial contingencies.
Conclusions
The NRI Services arm of ICICI Bank has made significant strides ever since its launch in 2001. The success has been achieved by understanding customer needs and then leveraging its competencies in terms of its product suite, reach, alternate channels, customer engagement and technology platforms. This provides a very enriching customer experience across all stages of his/her relationship with the bank.
The NRI business is deepening its customer interface and product suite to play a larger and proactive role in the full realisation of India’s potential. It has helped the bank to diversify its earnings across businesses and geographies, taking India to Indians. The focus going ahead will be to strengthen the presence in existing overseas locations, maintain high and prompt levels of service and use customer friendly communications channels to have top-of-mind recall amongst the entire NRI community for any of their financial services requirement.
