ICICI: Finance at your fingertips

ICICI Bank in the UAE offers a gamut of India-based services for NRIs

Please give us some information on ICICI Bank's International and UAE presence.

ICICI Bank is a leading private sector bank in India with global presence in 15 countries. ICICI Bank's international footprint consists of subsidiaries in the UK and Canada, branches in the United States, Singapore, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Dubai International Finance Centre, South Africa, and China and representative offices in the United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia. The bank's wholly-owned subsidiary ICICI Bank UK Plc has six branches in the UK and a branch in Germany. ICICI Bank Canada has eight branches.

ICICI Bank's international strategy is to work in high growth markets with a significant presence of NRIs and Indian corporates. Keeping this in mind, and given Dubai's strategic location and growing importance of the UAE as a regional hub for the Middle East, North and East Africa and the Indian subcontinent, ICICI Bank obtained a license from the Dubai Financial Services Authority on December 11, 2005 to launch private banking activities. The bank is the first Indian bank to establish a presence in DIFC. In 2011, the bank engaged in a wider range of corporate and commercial banking operations.

DIFC has provided the bank with world-class physical infrastructure, a legal framework based on common law and a progressive regulatory framework, which has nurtured the growth in our operations. ICICI Bank also has representative offices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, these offices cater to the Indian banking requirements of the large Indian diaspora who have made UAE their home.
 
What was the bank's financial performance in quarter ended June?

ICICI Bank reported a net profit of Rs1,908 crore in quarter ended June 2019. Our core operating profit (i.e., profit before provisions and tax, excluding treasury income) grew by 21 per cent year-on-year to Rs6,110 crore this quarter and the total deposits grew by 21 per cent year-on-year. The bank's net non-performing assets decreased by 51 per cent year-on-year in this quarter. Its net NPA ratio was at 1.77 per cent, the lowest in the last 14 quarters. The bank has a total capital adequacy ratio of 16.19 per cent and Tier-1 capital adequacy ratio of 14.6 per cent on standalone basis, which includes profits for Q1 2020.

The bank continues to invest in innovative products and state-of-the-art platforms that leverage emerging technologies. We are focused on expanding our core operating profit by growing our business in a risk calibrated and granular manner, and achieving a consolidated return on equity of 15 per cent by the quarter ended June 2020.

Can you give us an update on your Gulf operations and the services offered by the ICICI Bank in the region?

ICICI Bank has representative offices in the UAE market that promote a gamut of India-based NRI products. The branch in DIFC offers private banking as well as commercial banking services. In the private banking business, the DIFC branch offers investment products to its customers ranging from call accounts to investments in equity, bonds, real estate and other alternative asset classes.

The DIFC branch works closely with ICICI Bank's India-based centralised product team and with relationship management and business teams spread across the region including the UAE, Bahrain and South Africa. In the commercial banking space, the DIFC branch provides a range of products and services including the entire range of fund-based and non-fund based banking products to India's leading corporations and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-based companies. Our commercial banking operations are complemented by our trade finance and treasury activities. Our syndication capabilities also help in arranging finance for meeting the requirements of our clients.
 
Please give us a brief on the products and services you offer to NRI customers from the UAE representative offices.

ICICI Bank, through its representative offices in the UAE, promotes wide range of India-based products for NRIs. These products range from liabilities products like NRE & NRO savings accounts and deposits. We offer different variants of NRI accounts to suit the lifestyle requirements of the non-resident Indian diaspora. Some of the unique benefits of our higher variant accounts are insurance benefits for family members back home, concierge services etc. We also market asset products of ICICI Bank India such as home loans, auto loans and property search service. ICICI Direct accounts, which allows seamless investments into the Indian stock market online are also offered to NRIs.

ICICI Bank has a vast network of branches and ATMs across India. Also, we have robust digital service channels. We are one of the first Indian banks to provide a toll-free customer care number to our customers in the UAE, which caters to most of their service and banking requirements. A team of relationship managers and officers are also mapped to a select set of NRI customers to service their banking requirements in India.

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