ICICI Bank to add Facebook as Transaction Platform

Hyderabad, September 5: ICICI Bank will soon add another online platform for dispensing its banking transaction services — Facebook. The country’s largest private sector lender was the first bank in India to use the social media site to provide services such as account enquiry and request for cheque.  Now it is preparing to take this initiative one step forward by offering transaction services, such as deposit or transfer of money, to its Facebook customers. This is part of its efforts to provide next-gen banking solutions, in line with its ‘Khayaal Aapka’ (your care) philosophy.
Next-Gen solutions: It has recently added tablet banking and e-locker services to its range of technology products such as Internet and mobile banking. E-Locker is a virtual online locker, which can be used to safely store electronically scanned copies of important documents in various formats. Mukesh Kumar Jain, the bank’s Chief Technology Officer, said the bank was working on this technology and indicated that it could come out with this new service in the next few months.
Social media channels will, in the near future, form an important platform for banking services, he told media-persons here today. He was in the city to launch the bank’s electronic branch, Tab Banking and E-Locker services, as part of the bank’s nation-wide rollout of next-gen banking solutions.
Security issues: In response to a question, Jain said security was not a challenge in offering transaction services through the social media platform. He said this platform will not only make it easier for customers to make use of bank services but will also help the bank expand its customer base.
Jain said although mobile banking customers formed a small group today, two-thirds of the bank’s transactions were being done through ATMs and the Internet. He said the ICICI Bank page on Facebook already has seven lakh fans. A recent study by global consultancy major KPMG had revealed that businesses in India and other emerging markets are using social media platforms more than their developed market peers to expand customer relationships.

Banks begin reviving special schemes

Special schemes are back in focus as bank deposits continue to grow only at a sluggish pace. With no relief in sight for further monetary policy easing, banks have also increased interest rates on long-term deposits, to garner much needed liquidity.
State-run Bank of Baroda on Monday revised deposit rates upwards by 25-65 basis points (bps). M D Mallya, chairman and MD, said it had realigned the rates, keeping in view the sticky inflation and entrenchment of inflationary expectations. The bank has introduced a term deposit scheme of 1,111 days, offering an interest rate of 9.15 per cent. This is 15 bps higher than the normal term deposit of similar tenors.
Other public sector lenders and small private banks are also offering such schemes, where depositors would have to lock-in funds for an exact number of days. "The only attraction in such schemes is a higher rate of interest as compared to normal deposits of the same tenor bracket," said a general manager of a large public sector bank (PSB).

Central Bank of India raised rates on special deposit schemes by 20-25 bps, effective August 6. UCO Bank extended its schemes till September and also increased the maximum deposit cap to Rs 5 crore. In the past fortnight, PSBs have also realigned the rates offered on deposits up to Rs 15 lakh, on Rs lakh to Rs 1 crore and for Rs 1 crore and above.
In October 2007, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had asked banks to withdraw special schemes, as the rates of interest offered on these deposits were not in tune with those on normal deposits.
"No bank should discriminate in the matter of interest paid on deposits, between one deposit and another, accepted on the same date and for the same maturity, whether such deposits are accepted at the same office or at different offices of the bank," it had told banks.
To stay within regulatory limits, some banks exclude the special scheme tenor from the normal deposit bucket. For instance, a bank might offer 50 bps more on a tenor of 1,000 days, as compared to tenors of up to 999 days.
Akeel Master, partner, KPMG, said the trend might not sustain for long, as higher interest rates will have an impact on banks' margins in the absence of a corresponding growth in advances. "Banks that are under pressure from mismatch in asset-liabilities for certain tenors must have been compelled to tweak interest rates accordingly," he said.
RBI’s latest data shows bank advances, as of July 27, had grown 17.2 per cent over a year, while deposit growth lagged at 13.8 per cent .
The central bank has projected deposit growth of 16 per cent in the annual monetary and credit policy for 2012-13.
"Concerns that deposit growth has significantly been slower than credit growth for a prolonged period of time is something we have been watching closely and that was one of the issues we discussed with bankers on Monday," RBI Deputy Governor Subir Gokarn had told Business Standard in an interview after the first quarter policy announcement last month.
He said RBI might put out a projection in the second-quarter policy review to be announced on October 30. It is slated to announce the mid-quarter policy review on September 17.