Sachin Khandelwal,
Head, ICICI Bank NRI
Services
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 Click-
2Call 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.
In 2008, the Asian Banker
association accorded recognition to
this subgroup for “business modeling
and revenue distribution”
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World Finance | Nov - Dec 2009
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 topof-mind
recall amongst the entire NRI community for any of their
financial services requirement.
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