The Indian Internet Banking Journey

ICICI – Internet Banking Initiatives Contd...

R. Ramraj, Managing Director, Satyam Infoway, said, "ICICI bank has many corporate clients and the idea is to develop e-commerce on a B2B platform where payments will be facilitated through ICICI. The alliance is going to give a big fillip to B2B." Infinity's services included account information, funds transfer, bill payments, online Real-Time e-shopping payments; communication with bank manager, various customized services. The products were targeted at two different customers: individuals and small businesses, and corporates having an annual turnover of over Rs 500 million. In the first half of 2000, ICICI introduced new Internet banking products for school and college students. Kid-e-bank was introduced to help children between 5-12 years to open an account and check the account balance on the Internet.

Bank@campus was a service for students to enable services like ATMs, Smart Card, educational loans etc. It was launched across the country in many campuses. As part of its B2C programs, ICICI tied up with 10 shopping malls all over India. This allowed customers to shop and pay bills online from their accounts. It also tied up with 24 billing companies across 11 cities, including Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) for bill payment. The bank also offered mutual funds related services to its customers. It also tied up with automobile major Ford, for local delivery of its car 'Ikon' against orders placed on the Internet. In 2000, ICICI bank acquired the Bank of Madura. Bank of Madura (BoM). BoM was amalgamated with ICICI bank from March 10, 2001, as a part of which, ICICI acquired BoM's customer base of 1.2 million.

However, analysts felt the biggest gain was BoM's IT-savvy employees. By 2001, ICICI bank had emerged as one of the leading providers of Internet banking services in India. The bank was reportedly moving towards becoming a full-fledged e-commerce company in a couple of years. Nachiket Mor, Head of ICICI Treasury said, "The Seven-Eleven supermarket chain in Japan has recently applied for a banking license. This is the way world is moving. If supermarkets get into banking, then it is also time for banks to get into the selling of consumer durables."

The Future

Despite the rosy predictions and increased corporate activity, the Indian Internet banking system is facing many hurdles. The problems include operational risks, security risks, system architecture risks, reputational risks and legal risks (See Exhibit I for Problems in Internet Banking).
Apart from the security issues, there are a host of other problems like:
• PC user base in India is extremely low compared to global standards.
• The Internet user base is limited.
• Lack of infrastructure to advanced technology based banking services.

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Case Details

Case Code : ITSY003
Themes: EVA Financial concepts
Case Length : 5 Pages
Period : 1997-2001
Organization : L&T
Pub Date : 2002
Teaching Note : Available
Countries : India
Industry : Construction - Building Materials & Equipment, Financial Services

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