New Delhi [India], Mar 20 : Private sector bank ICICI Bank Ltd on Monday announced the launch of a unique mobile banking app 'Mera iMobile' for rural customers that will allow them to access banking services as well as information on agri services.

The app allows users in rural areas to avail as many as 135 services, some of which are unprecedented in the industry.

It will enable the users to save the time and cost of visiting a branch to avail these services. The list of services include Kisan Credit Card, Gold Loan, Farm Equipment Loan and loans to Self-Help Groups (SHGs).

The app also enables them to undertake an array of frequently used banking services from their smartphone, without using mobile internet services.

New Delhi, Feb 28 : ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar on Saturday said the Union Budget 2015, which was introduced in the Parliament earlier in the day, will empower the entire country and touches the requirements of everyone.

"This budget empowers entire India, because it actually increases the devolution to the states, it actually talks about the youth of India by taking care of skilling and training requirements. It talks about entrepreneurship, innovation. It touches the requirements of everyone," Kochhar said.

"There is a clear focus on infrastructure. There is a clear acceptance of the fact that the initial push needs to be given by public investment. There is directional clarity about how to push infrastructure through various sectors," she added.

Mumbai: Private sector lender ICICI Bank on Tuesday launched an equated monthly instalment (EMI) scheme on debit card purchases, making it the first of its kind facility.

All debit card holders, however, are not eligible for this facility. Only those with fixed deposits with the bank can avail of this scheme. EMIs have been fixed at three, six, nine and 12 months, the bank said in an official statement issued here today.

Under EMI facility, the bank will charge an interest rate of 13 per cent on debit card purchases that will be linked to the amount in fixed deposits.

Other banks offer EMI facility to their credit card holders on purchases.

New Delhi - In-line with a weak stock market, nine of the top-10 most valued Indian companies together lost Rs 74,193 crore from their market valuation last week.

Barring ICICI Bank, rest nine companies, including TCS, ONGC, RIL, ITC and Coal India suffered losses. The market-capitalisation of TCS plunged Rs 17,334.74 crore to Rs 4,92,904.10 crore, taking the steepest hit among the top-10 firms.

RIL's value plummeted by Rs 13,978.9 crore to Rs 3,16,421.99 crore, while that of ONGC tanked Rs 12,533.79 crore to Rs 3,30,455.81 crore.

Mumbai: ICICI Bank will look at acquiring a bank if it finds one with the right size and right valuation, but is yet to find a takeover target that fits in its evaluation model, the bank chief Chanda Kochhar said.

ICICI Bank, which added 650 branches to its network in the last fiscal ended March 31, 2014, is as such adding business equivalent to the size of one bank in its ordinary course of business and any acquisition target would need to be of a relevant size, Kochhar said.

Vadodara: The country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank on Monday said it plans to open branches in Australia, South Africa and Mauritius.

The city-headquartered bank has received the regulatory clearances to open the branches and will also upgrade its representative office in China, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Chanda Kochhar said on the sidelines of its 20th annual general meeting here.

Mumbai, April 25 : India's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank Friday said its net profit grew by 15.1 percent to Rs. 2,652.01 crore ($434.75 million) for the quarter ended March 31 last.

The company had posted Rs. 2,304.07 crore profit in the corresponding quarter of last year.

ICICI Bank's total income rose to Rs. 14,465.34 crore for the January-March quarter this year as compared to Rs. 12,573.52 crore recorded in the corresponding quarter of last year.

For fiscal 2013-14, the bank has a net profit of Rs. 9,810.48 crore as compared to Rs. 8,325.47 crore, registering a growth of 17.83 percent.

India's leading private sector bank, ICICI has said that it is planning is increase lending to women self help groups in the country.

The banking giant said that it is targeting to more than double its cumulative disbursements to Rs. 2,500 crore to women self help groups (SHGs) within the next financial year.

Managing Director and Chief Exective Chanda Kochhar said, "We started lending to SHGs 30 months ago, and have disbursed around Rs. 1,000 crore till now. We are targeting to take the cumulative disbursements under the programme to Rs. 2,500 crore by March, 2015."

Mumbai, Jan 29 : The country's largest private lender ICICI Bank Wednesday said its net profit increased by 12.53 percent to Rs. 2,532.21 crore in the third quarter of the current financial year.

The bank posted a net profit of Rs. 2,532.21 crore for the quarter ended Dec 31, 2013, as compared to Rs. 2,250.24 crore recorded in the same quarter of previous year, registering an year-on-year increase of 12.53 percent.

The company's total income increased to Rs. 14,255.96 crore in the quarter under review as compared to Rs. 12,352.91 crore posted in the corresponding quarter of previous year.

Strong demand for homes and home loans has prompted Indian lenders to turn their attention to home loan business.

Banks are also taking refuse in home loans as sluggish growth of the economy during the past couple of years has led to a drastic decline in corporate lending.

While corporate loans slipped, demand for home loans remained persistently strong due to several factors, including urbanization, soaring incomes, trend of nuclear families.

Mumbai, Oct 25 : ICICI Bank, India's largest private sector lender, Friday said its net profit rose by 20.1 percent to Rs. 2,352 crore ($376 million) for the July-September quarter helped by higher credit growth.

The lender posted a net profit of Rs. 2,352 crore for the quarter ended Sep 30, 2013 as compared to Rs. 1,956.11 crore posted in the corresponding quarter of last year.

ICICI Bank's total income rose to Rs. 12,979.75 crore for July-September quarter of the current financial year from Rs. 12,069.3 crore recorded in the same quarter last fiscal.

Four Indian women led by ICICI Bank Chief Executive Chanda Kochhar have named among the world's top 50 women business leaders by the renowned Fortune magazine.

Fortune magazine ranked Kochhar fourth in its global list of top 50 women business leaders, behind Brazilian energy giant Petrobras' Chief Executive Maria Das Gracas Foster, Turkish conglomerate Sabanci Holding's Guler Sabanci and Australian bank Westpac's chief Gail Kelly, who grabbed the first, second and third spots, respectively.

Following rival private-sector lenders HDFC Bank and Axix Bank's footsteps, ICICI Bank Ltd. on Thursday announced an increase of 0.25 per cent in the minimum interest rate it charges from borrowers.

ICICI Bank announced that it would start charging borrowers a minimum interest rate of 10 per cent from Friday, August 23, a quarter percentage point up from previous rate of 9.75 per cent.

New Delhi, Aug 21 : Vodafone India, along with ICICI Bank, Wednesday launched its mobile money transfer and payment service 'M-Pesa' here. It plans to roll out this service in Mumbai and Lucknow in the next couple of days.

This service helps the unbanked and under-banked sections of the population gain access to financial services through the mobile phone.

In a bid to attract more fixed deposits, private-sector lender ICICI Bank on Friday increased interest rates on such deposits by 0.25 to 0.75 percentage points.

The bank increased interest rate on fixed deposits of 46 to 60 days tenure by 0.75 percentage points to 7 per cent, while fixed deposits of tenure of 61 to 289 days got increased by 0.75 percentage points to 7.75 per cent.

ICICI Bank has reported a year-on-year increase of 25.3 per cent in standalone net profit for the April to June quarter of 2013, thanks to a surge interest income and margins.

The country's leading private-sector lender announced that its standalone net profit jumped from Rs 1,815.05 crore in the April to June quarter of 2012 to Rs 2,274 crore in the same quarter of this year.

Mumbai, July 31 : ICICI Bank's net profit increased 25 percent for the first quarter (April to June) of fiscal 2013-14, the country's second largest lender informed the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Wednesday.

The standalone profit after tax of the bank increased to Rs. 2,274 crore in the first quarter of 2013-14 from Rs. 1,815 crore during the corresponding quarter of 2012-13.

It clocked net interest margin of 3.27 percent during the first quarter of the current fiscal compared to 3.01 percent during the corresponding quarter last fiscal. (IANS)

The British arm of private sector lender ICICI Bank on Thursday launched an online savings account designed purposely for carrying out money transfers to India.

The HiSAVE Remittance Account promises dual benefits for account holders: easy money transfers to India and 1.50 per cent interest on the balance maintained.

The reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday slapped three private sector banks, viz. Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, with hefty fines for violating know your customer (KYC) rules.

The central bank imposed a fine of Rs 5 crore on Axis Bank, and of Rs 4.5 crore and Rs 1 crore on HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, respectively.

A statement released by the central bank stated, "After considering the facts of each case ... Reserve Bank came to conclusion that some of the violations were substantiated and warranted imposition of monetary penalty..."

Mumbai, April 26 : India's second largest lender ICICI Bank Friday said its net profit increased 21 percent to Rs. 2,304.07 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2013 on the back of higher earnings from loans.

The bank posted a net profit of Rs. 2,304.07 crore for the January-March period, as compared to Rs. 1,901.76 crore recorded in the like period of last year, registering an year-on-year growth of 21.15 percent.

The company's total income increased to Rs. 12,573.52 crore in the fourth quarter of 2012-13 as compared to Rs. 11,403.10 crore recorded in the same period of previous year, the private sector bank said in a statement.