ICICI Bank plans new remittance products

Buoyed by the robust performance of its remittances business, ICICI Bank plans to launch a slew of innovative products in this segment before the end of this fiscal.

The bank also plans to scale up its presence in the Gulf besides exploring alliance possibilities with overseas banks to boost this business, especially in the emerging markets.

"We have a few innovatively-structured products tailor-made for the remittances market in the pipeline slated for launch before March 2007," Manish Misra, Head, Remittances, ICICI Bank, said here.

While not revealing the finer details about the proposed products, Misra said the products will be market-specific and possess a plethora of innovative features which will make the modes of disbursing and accepting funds very easy.

"The new products will focus on end-beneficiaries who do not have an account with us as also on the hitherto unbanked segments," he said.

ICICI Bank currently enjoys an over 20 per cent marketshare in the $24 billion Indian remittances market.

On alliances, Misra said that ICICI Bank was in talks with a few foreign banks. "A few more alliances are in the pipeline," he said, adding that the bank already has six such tie-ups in place.

Expressing satisfaction at the way ICICI Bank's remittances business has shaped up so far, Misra said "our growth in the last few years has outpaced that of the industry's."

The remittances market has expanded robustly at a CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of 15-to-20 per cent in the last three years and industry analysts expect the momentum to continue over the next three years as well.

"A million Indians go overseas annually, adding to the already existing huge stock of NRIs and PIOs. This constitutes a rapidly expanding market which is driven largely by young people, the majority of whom are below 35 years of age," he said.

Western economies are ageing and to sustain their growth, they need not only skilled personnel but also an economically-productive work-force which is sourced from countries like India. "This constitutes a huge opportunity for us going forward," Misra said.