ICICI Bank 2010 Annual Report Download - page 40

Business Overview
The growth in telecom infrastructure is expected to continue on account of decline in tariffs and increased focus
on rural markets. Further, the proposed allotment of additional spectrum is expected to result in significant
investments for rollout of services.
The transportation sector has witnessed renewed momentum with the government bidding out new projects for
development of national and state highways. The port sector is also witnessing creation of new capacities in both
the bulk and container cargo segments along with increased private sector participation. The railway sector is also
expected to witness investments for modernisation of railways stations, logistics development and expansion of
dedicated freight corridors.
Further, we also expect increased private sector investments in the development of water supply, education and
healthcare infrastructure. For example, the government is in the process of inviting bids from private companies
for setting up about 2,500 model schools on a public-private-partnership basis.
We will continue to position ourselves to cater to the financing requirements in the infrastructure sector. The key
to our project finance proposition is our constant endeavour to add value to projects through financial structuring
to ensure bankability. These services are backed by innovative financial structuring, sectoral expertise and sound
due diligence techniques.
International Banking
Our international strategy is focused on building a retail deposit franchise, meeting the foreign currency needs of our
Indian corporate clients, taking select trade finance exposures linked to imports to India and achieving the status of the
preferred non-resident Indian (NRI) community bank in key markets. We also seek to build stable wholesale funding
sources and strong syndication capabilities to support our corporate and investment banking business, and to expand
private banking operations for India-centric asset classes. ICICI Bank currently has subsidiaries in the United Kingdom,
Russia and Canada, branches in Singapore, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Dubai International Finance Centre, Qatar
Financial Centre and the United States and representative offices in the United Arab Emirates, China, South Africa,
Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. The Bank’s wholly owned subsidiary ICICI Bank UK PLC has eleven
branches in the United Kingdom and a branch each in Belgium and Germany. ICICI Bank Canada has nine branches.
ICICI Bank Eurasia Limited Liability Company has two branches.
During fiscal 2010, global economic activity remained moderate and the pace of recovery in international trade
and capital flows remained subdued. In this environment, we continued to focus on risk containment and liquidity
management in our international operations. We also focused on building a stable deposit base and improving
the funding profile in our international operations. During fiscal 2010, the proportion of retail term deposits in
total deposits in ICICI Bank UK increased from 58% at March 31, 2009 to 66% at March 31, 2010. The proportion
of term deposits in ICICI Bank Canada remained at over 80% of total deposits at March 31, 2010. During fiscal
2010, we continued to maintain healthy liquidity at our overseas banking subsidiaries.
With the growth in our domestic branch network, our franchise among NRIs has grown significantly over the last
few years. Our NRI customer base currently stands at over 600,000. We continued to focus on developing products
and service offerings to cater to the requirements of the NRI community. During fiscal 2010, we also focused on
improving customer service across our channels through various technology based initiatives and by providing
value added relationship offerings like expert views on investment and finance related matters.
Inclusive and rural banking
We have undertaken several initiatives to meet the financial services needs of the rural market. These include
offering micro-credit through microfinance institutions (MFIs), micro-insurance and micro-investment products,
financial inclusion through business correspondents, farmer financing and integration of the agri-value chain. We
continued to focus on improving our product and service offerings to meet the requirements of all participants
in the rural market including farmers, traders, commission agents, small processors and other medium and large
agri-corporates.
We work closely with a number of MFIs and believe that MFIs are well equipped to drive financial inclusion in
existing un-banked rural areas. During fiscal 2010, we reached out to over 4.0 million micro-finance borrowers
with an outstanding portfolio in this segment at Rs. 31.79 billion at March 31, 2010. We also work with 20 business
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