ICICI Bank 2008 Annual Report Download - page 44

During fiscal 2008, we launched the “Probationary Officer Programme.” It was a first of its kind, nation wide initiative
to provide a career opportunity to aspiring and bright graduates who would have otherwise been excluded from
participating in the nation’s growth. The ICICI Group collaborated with Manipal Universal Learning to create the
ICICI Manipal Academy for Banking & Insurance to generate inclusive employment opportunities for capable,
young graduates. It offers a fully paid one-year residential training programme to more than 800 graduates who
have been selected from across India through a rigorous process. This one-year programme strives to increase
efficiency and improve customer experience by enabling first day employee productivity through knowledge,
skills and grooming inputs. It aims at integrating students into the ICICI Group ethos and work ethics.
Attempting to bridge the skills gap that exists in India and especially in the banking industry, we launched the
Branch Banking Academy, Wealth Management Academy and Sales Academy in fiscal 2008. These academies
have been launched with the premise that banking skills can be created and extended to those who have the basic
aptitude to learn. These job-linked, skill-enhancement academies are aimed at increasing the speed to job. We
have effectively deployed certified branch managers and branch operations managers for all our new branches
within six months through the Branch Leadership Program.
Our training initiatives attempt to build relevant and standardised knowledge and skills that can be replicated and
made accessible to our distributed employee network easily. In fiscal 2008, we pioneered game-based learning
and simulation in banking. A branch banking simulator and several game-based modules were created to provide
virtual environments for skills practice and enhance the quality of service delivery.
In fiscal 2008, we explored mobile learning as a channel to provide performance support through instant learning.
This channel, which is easily available to our entire front line sales team, strives towards resolving all customer
queries and facilitates flawless sales closure.
ICICI Bank was recognised in the global list of Top Companies for Leaders in 2007, according to a survey
conducted by Hewitt Associates in partnership with the RBL group and Fortune magazine. Our in-house leadership
development programme continues to build leadership talent within the organisation.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
ICICI Bank continues to deploy technology for use in banking. Continued focus on leveraging technology has
resulted in process efficiencies and enhanced convenience for customers. The emphasis on an enterprise view
of technology has led to an architecture that is highly aligned to the changing business environment.
During fiscal 2008, we have augmented our traditional channels with offerings on the mobile and self-service
transaction capability. With a view to enhance customer convenience and provide services on a continuous
and location independent basis, we have enabled financial transactions through mobile phones. This allows
customers to perform banking transactions in a secure manner through an application that can be downloaded
on the phone.
In order to strengthen decision making in our asset businesses, we have implemented the business rules engine
concept during the last fiscal. The engine offers rule flows, decision tables, decision trees and score models for
asset product applicants and hence eliminates subjectivity in decision-making, thereby limiting exposure risks.
The implementation of a comprehensive collections system has been another development in the retail asset
business.
Operations in new branches in Germany and US have been enabled with standardised systems for banking
accounts, internet banking and regulatory reporting. To support the expansion of private banking and wealth
management businesses in overseas geographies, we have deployed a comprehensive private banking
system. This provides enhanced portfolio management tools and effective risk management capabilities for our
overseas operations.
We have strengthened our security framework to include the mobile channel. Effective steps have been taken to
control online security threats such as phishing, frauds and identity thefts. By adopting the transaction security
system at ATMs, all ATM transactions are now end-to-end secure as per recommended industry standards.
Business Overview
42
ICICI BANK_(Fin_Matter 1-64).ind42 42ICICI BANK_(Fin_Matter 1-64).ind42 42 6/20/08 5:03:09 PM6/20/08 5:03:09 PM