ICICI Bank to focus on retail, agriculture

Tirupathi: The biggest post-merger challenge for ICICI Bank will be to keep the momentum going, according to ICICI Bank managing director K V Kamath.

In order to maintain the momentum, the bank will, this year, focus more on retail liabilities and agricultural financing, Kamath said. He and other officials of the bank were here in connection with the inauguration of the first online ATM at the temple town of Tirumala, Andhra Pradesh. This is the 1,005th ATM of the bank in India.

Kamath put the size of the retail sector at around Rs 60-70,000 crore, which is growing at a rate of around 40 per cent. ICICI Bank, with the entire suite of products for the retail customer, will benefit most by the burgeoning growth in the retail sector.

About the banks immediate plans, Kamath said the bank will focus on lending to the agriculture sector, making use of service centres like krishi and other cooperatives. The bank will give loans to farmers, with help from cooperatives or other village bodies, for credit appraisal and recovery. I need six more months to put the platform in place, Kamath said.

The new ATM has one unique feature: pilgrims can use the ATM to make offerings to the deity online. Offerings can be made at the ATM in denominations of Rs 51 to Rs 10,001. The amount will be transferred from the customers account to Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanams account and the customer will receive a transaction receipt from the ATM.

Eventually, the facility will be extended to all the 120 cities where ICICI Bank has ATM centres. At these ATMs the banks customers can make offerings to the Tirupathi god. Today more than half of the transactions at the ICICI Bank take place electronically, as against 5 per cent just two years back, Kamath said.