Its Winning Mantra
Bringing its mojo back to the financial banquet is ICICI Bank. Years ago, it pioneered universal banking and took the retail road to build its loan book — moving away from its legacy of institutional banking. And now, it is embracing technology in a big way to expand its loan books at a healthy pace, and its shows.
In fiscal ‘16, the bank’s advances increased 12 per cent to Rs 4,35,264 crore, and it’s balance sheet grew phenomenally at 42 per cent to Rs 7,08,846 crore.
No wonder the bank stands runner-up in the ‘Best Large Bank’ category in the BW Businessworld Best Bank Survey, 2016.
Managing director Chanda Kochhar is powering the technological thrust across platforms to reach more customers at lower costs. The bank was the first in India to introduce contact-less mobile-phone payments. It also introduced Express Home Loans, a fully online process of sanctioning home loans.
“Our digital wallet, Pockets, has had over 3.6 million downloads. Our banking application, iMobile, is the most comprehensive banking app in the country, offering over 150 services,” said Kochhar in a message to shareholders in annual report 2015-16.
ICICI Bank has also been stepping up efforts to reduce dud loans on its books. In fiscal ’16, it re-structured loans of Rs 19,796 crore as well as created a collective contingency and related reserve of Rs 3,600 crore, further bolstering its balance sheet.
During the year, owing to a renewed focus on keeping costs low, the bank’s operating profits grew a healthy 23 per cent to Rs 23,864 crore. Its cost to average assets dipped from 1.85 per cent to 1.45 per cent, while operating profit per branch surged from Rs 4.87 crore per branch to Rs 5.36 crore as the bank derived more technology-led efficiencies.
