ICICI Bank 2010 Annual Report Download - page 44

Business Overview
in the corporate bonds segment and procured sole arranger status in most of the primary market transactions
sourced by us. The Bank’s overseas branches and subsidiaries also invest in credit derivatives with investments
in this portfolio representing exposures to Indian corporates.
We provide foreign exchange and derivative products and services to our customers through our Global Markets
Group. These products and services include foreign exchange products for hedging currency risk, foreign exchange
and interest rate derivatives like options and swaps and bullion transactions. We also hedge our own market risks
related to these products with banking counterparties.
HUMAN RESOURCES
“Leadership through service” has been identified as a core value proposition of the Bank’s business strategy. This
entails achieving service excellence at our branches and enhancing customer service skills among our employees.
In line with the above strategy, the Bank continued its endeavour to enhance its human resources capability and
invest in skill development and training of its employees along with initiatives to enhance employee engagement.
Developing appropriate skill sets for our client facing employees has been a key focus area. Skill enhancement
of our employees has been achieved under the aegis of various learning academies. During fiscal 2010, we also
continued to focus on providing functional training to our employees through various simulations, game-based
modules and e-learning programmes. The Bank has achieved considerable success in this regard. Our Client
Sales Simulator, launched during fiscal 2010 also won a silver award in the prestigious Brandon Hall Excellence
in Learning Awards in the category of “Best use of games for learning”.
One of the core differentiators for the Bank has been the availability of a robust leadership talent pool. The Bank
continues to invest in deepening the leadership pool through various interventions including talent identification and
development, providing employees with challenging opportunities at an early stage of their career and exposing
such employees to world class leadership practices. As a recognition of the Bank’s world class leadership practice,
the Bank was ranked first in the Asia Pacific region and fifth globally in the “Top Companies for Leaders” survey
conducted by Hewitt Associates, the RBL Group and Fortune Magazine.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Our information technology strategy focuses on increasing customer convenience by targeting a 24x7 service
window, reducing customer complaints, and increasing tunaround and resolution timeframes.
During fiscal 2010, we implemented several customer centric technology initiatives including customer account
number portability across branches and electronic fund transfer for global customers for remittances to non-ICICI
beneficiaries in India. We also implemented new modules in our private banking system to manage the customer
life-cycle and offer a consolidated view of the client’s portfolio. We also continued to built technology capabilities
to improve our existing processes and capabilities. During fiscal 2010, new systems in information security were
implemented to enhance online banking security and mitigate web based frauds. The technology infrastructure
was also upgraded to service increasing business requirements. We also acquired a comprehensive set of data
center management and automation software to service the increasing complexity and scale of operations at our
data centers. During fiscal 2010, initiatives were also undertaken to consolidate existing applications and transfer
data centre technology assets to virtual platforms. We also initiated the construction of two new high density and
high efficiency data centres to cater to future requirements.
KEY SUBSIDIARIES
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company (ICICI Life) maintained its market leadership in the private sector with
an overall market share of 9.3% based on retail new business weighted received premium in fiscal 2010. ICICI
Life’s total premium increased by 7.7% to Rs. 165.32 billion in fiscal 2010 with renewal premiums increasing by
19.4%. ICICI Life’s new business annualised premium equivalent was Rs. 53.45 billion in fiscal 2010. ICICI Life
achieved its first year of accounting profits since inception in fiscal 2010 with a profit after tax of Rs. 2.58 billion.
The expense ratio has decreased from 11.8% in fiscal 2009 to 9.1% in fiscal 2010. Assets held at March 31, 2010
were Rs. 573.19 billion compared to Rs. 327.88 billion at March 31, 2009.
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