Joel Rebello and Vivek Kaul spoke to Anup Bagchi, head, ICICI global private banking, regarding the bank’s vision for this business.
After aggressively expanding its local banking business to become the second-largest bank in the country, ICICI Bank has now set its eyes on increasing its presence in the overseas market. Just last month it got the nod to turn its representative office in the United States to a full fledged branch. Joel Rebello and Vivek Kaul spoke to Anup Bagchi, head, ICICI global private banking, regarding the bank’s vision for this business.
What does the global banking business mean to ICICI Bank?
The business is very important because of India’s booming economy. Many foreign countries are not growing as fast as India and, in order to enhance returns, investors abroad target emerging sustainable countries like India.
When overseas investors look at India, we, through our bouquet of products, can fulfil all their requirements.
When we enter a country, we have two options — either we offer our products on our own or distribute them through banks there. For our private banking operations in the UK and Canada, we have a tie-up with large local providers for distribution of our products.
What is your selling point in every new country you enter?
Our Indian connection is our strength and non resident Indians (NRIs) are still the most important part of our business because of their relatedness to India. But there is increasing curiosity about India among non-NRIs and they now constitute around 10-15% of our global private banking business.
Which business is growing faster?
Both the businesses are spreading very fast, but non-NRI business is on a lower base and hence is growing faster. Our global private banking business rides on other businesses of the bank like investment banking, corporate banking, real estate investment and brokerage. We work with all the divisions in the group and try and give the customer our best. Our strength is the vast range of products.
Which are the countries you are strong in? Are you considering growing markets like East Europe?
We are strong in the Gulf countries and the UK. We are also doing well in Singapore. We are not present in East Europe because old wealthy NRIs are not present in there. NRIs are our strength and we play to our strength. It doesn’t make sense to start a business in a country, where the NRI population is not much.
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