By Soman Baby -
MANAMA: One of India's fastest growing banks, ICICI Bank Limited, is to officially launch its offshore banking unit in Bahrain on Sunday.
Bahrain Monetary Agency (BMA) Governor Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa will open the bank's branch at the Manama Centre, in the presence of ICICI managing director and chief executive officer K V Kamath.
Minister of State Abdulnabi Al Sho'ala will be the chief guest at a luncheon reception being hosted by ICICI country head Ajay Sharma on the same day, at the Gulf International Convention Centre, Gulf Hotel.
Today, ICICI Bank is the market leader in retail finance - India's fastest growing and most profitable banking segment - as reported in the J P Morgan analyst report published by J P Morgan, said Mr Sharma.
According to the report, ICICI Bank is probably the only bank of its kind in India with size (in terms of market share and distribution), as well as efficiency (in terms of technology and profitability), he added.
ICICI Bank in the last few months has also bagged several industry leading rewards.
The most significant of these include Best Bank 2004 award by Business India, the leading business magazine in India and Most Customer Friendly Bank by Outlook Money, another leading personal finance publication in India.
Other awards include Best Bank in India - 2004 award by Euromoney, Best Domestic Commercial Bank award by Asiamoney, Best Bank in India by Finance Asia and Asian Banker's award of Best Retail Bank in India.
"Over the last few years, the bank has grown from being a focused development financial institution to a technology driven diversified financial conglomerate," said Mr Sharma.
"It has established its market leadership in retail and corporate businesses in India and in various geographies across the world."
ICICI Bank has this year further consolidated its lead in retail banking to become the largest housing loans provider in India.
The ceremony will also be attended by bank joint managing director Lalita Gupte.
The bank has around 1,800 ATMs and 470 branches in India and is expanding internationally with branches in about eight countries.
"In Bahrain, we are gearing up to roll out the bank's full suite of OBU products so as to act as a hub for its banking operations in the GCC countries," said Mr Sharma.
"Further, the bank is in the process of providing various retail banking products for the NRIs (non-resident Indians) based in Bahrain as part of its licence from BMA for NRI banking services. "The bank has already soft launched certain NRI banking activities from its premises at Manama Centre, mainly the savings account and fixed deposits for NRIs."
Source: Gulf Daily News
