Icici Bank Unveils Echeques

ICICI Bank has launched an 'eCheque' facility for its Internet banking customers to enable them to make online payments from their accounts to any account in any bank.

The eCheque facility is available in eight cities across the country which includes Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata. It plans to extend the facility to seven other cities.

Speaking at the launch, ICICI Bank executive director Chanda Kochhar said, "The backbone of the transfer is through the Reserve Bank of India's electronic fund transfer (EFT) scheme. A customer will have to register the payee with the bank for the first time."

Once a request is made for transfer to the registered payee, the money is debited from the customer's account. The money is transferred along with the payee's detail to the RBI's national clearing cell (NCC). RBI in turn transfers the money to the payee bank which then credits it to the payee's account.

ICICI Bank would be charging the customer one rupee for every Rs 1,000 transacted with a minimum charge of Rs 10. As an introductory offer the bank is offering the service free for three months. "The charge is lower than the bank's draft charge. As we are using the electronic mode our costs are also low. Customers will not have to come to the branch for a demand draft," added Kochhar.

The bank has a customer base of around 48 lakh, of which 10 lakh are registered online customers. "About 18 months back, 95 per cent of the transactions used to take place at the branches. This has now come down to 45 per cent of the transactions with the remaining transactions being done through automated teller machines (ATMs), call centre and Internet banking," said Kochhar.

The bank has increased its deposit base by around Rs 5,000 crore in the last quarter.