MUMBAI, Sept 23:Private sector lebder, ICICI Bank on Monday said it will expand its retail network in the country by adding 450 new branches this fiscal.
Of these, the Bank has made 320 branches operational for customers and in the process, crossed the milestone of having 5,000 branches. The milestone branch was set up at Thane in Maharashtra.
With this, the Bank has a wide network of over 5,190 branches, extension counters and ATMs across the country. The Bank’s branch footprint now covers locations across the country from Leh in Jammu & Kashmir to Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu, from Naliya in Gujarat to Aizawl in Mizoram. Nearly half of the branches are in rural and semi-urban areas to facilitate financial inclusion in the country.
Mr Anup Bagchi, Executive Director, ICICI Bank, said, “We believe that a wide branch network continues to be important for retail banking. It helps deepen the relationship with the customer by serving them a wide range of products and offerings. More importantly, the branches offer consultation and guidance to customers for all kinds of banking requirements including mortgages, business banking, other loans and investments.”
“Our strategy is to set up branches wherever business activity emerges. In line with this strategy, we have chalked out a plan of setting up around 450 branches this fiscal in fresh catchments and micro-markets where economic activity is present. Of these, we have already set up 320 branches.”
Another set of 130 branches will also be customer ready by end of this fiscal. In the course of this expansion, the bank have also crossed the important milestone of having set up our 5000th branch. The milestone also marks 25 years of the commencement of the first retail branch at Cenotaph Road in Chennai, he said.
“In the last few years, we have seen that the nature of business at branches has evolved. Customers are now more keen to seek advice and guidance from branches for complex transactions, loans and investments. For simple transactions, they prefer doing it over digital channels like internet and mobile banking.
“Our new branches too have been aligned to meet these evolving requirements. They sport a contemporary look and feel to provide a superior experience to our customers. The design principle focuses on enhancing digital transactions by introducing 24×7 ‘e-lobby’ at many branches, simplifying customer navigation with demarcated spaces for transactions as well as elevating customer engagement levels with exclusive engagement ‘pods’ for loans and investments at prominent catchment areas,” Mr Bagchi added.
(UNI)
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