ICICI Bank 2011 Annual Report Download - page 39

issue 10-year senior bonds in the international markets. We also focused on establishing and growing relationships
with global multinationals that are increasingly entering and expanding in Indian markets.
We also strengthened our market position and share in remittances during fiscal 2011 and continued to develop
products and service offerings to meet the requirements of the Non Resident Indian (NRI) community. The emphasis
was on improving account operation via remote channels in order to cater to the customers’ needs when overseas.
We launched I-Express, an instant cross-border money transfer option for NRIs through our select partners in the
Middle East. The I-Express facility offers the remitter an option of visiting any partner outlet for instant credit into
the beneficiary account maintained with ICICI Bank in India, at no extra cost. We also launched ‘Fixed Rupee’ on
Money2India.com – a facility that enables NRIs to send the exact rupee amount remittance to India since the exchange
rate is confirmed at the time of initiating the remittance.
INCLUSIVE & RURAL BANKING
In accordance with the ICICI Group’s vision of combining a sustainable business model with a social and human
development agenda, the Bank has undertaken several initiatives to meet the financial services needs of the rural
market. These include offering credit through our branches and dedicated field teams and financial inclusion through
business correspondents. 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 agri-corporates.
In March 2010, our Board approved a three-year financial inclusion plan that envisaged the opening of no-frill savings
accounts and expanding our rural reach over the next three years along with the provision of credit to select individuals
in the target segment through various product lines comprising micro-credit, kisan credit card, farm equipment loan
and loan against jewellery. In fiscal 2011, we focused on building capacity to implement our financial inclusion plan
and our progress against the plan targets during the year has been satisfactory. We have also focused on opening
accounts for routing benefit payments under various government schemes and have received the mandate for opening
accounts of individuals under these schemes in certain states.
The Bank has also identified 23 Business Correspondents having a network of 208 customer service points, to service
these customers. We tied up with Vodafone and Aircel for extending basic financial services through the mobile
platform. The plan is to leverage the penetration and the distribution infrastructure of the mobile network operators.
We have also built lending capability in over 1,000 of our branches for products targeted towards individual customers
in the agri-value chain. We also increased our product offerings in rural India by relaunching farm equipment finance
with strategic tie-ups with tractor manufacturers. New product initiatives were also undertaken during the year to
enhance credit flow towards the micro and small enterprises sector.
Going forward, we will continue to focus on leveraging our branch network and the network of our Business
Correspondent partners to enhance financial inclusion by offering banking facilities to the unbanked, and growing
our relationships with these customers over time. We will seek to play a significant role in the channeling of
payments under government schemes to the beneficiaries through their bank accounts with us. We will also leverage
the emerging initiatives and infrastructure, such as the Unique Identity initiative of the Government, that support
financial inclusion in the country. We will seek to scale up our offerings of credit products in rural areas and across the
agricultural value chain by leveraging our extensive branch network and developing appropriate product propositions
for these segments.
RISK MANAGEMENT
Risk is an integral part of the banking business and we aim at delivering superior shareholder value by achieving
an appropriate trade-off between risk and returns. The key risks are credit risk, market risk and operational risk.
Our risk management strategy is based on a clear understanding of various risks, disciplined risk assessment and
measurement procedures and continuous monitoring.
The key principles underlying our risk management framework are as follows:
The Board of Directors has oversight on all the risks assumed by the Bank. Specific Committees have been constituted
to facilitate focused oversight of various risks. Our Risk Committee reviews our risk management policies in relation
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