< << <<< INTRODUCTION >>> >> >
ICICI Bank is the largest private sector bank in India. No doubt about it. It was the confluence of one of the biggest financial corporation and a once great bank known for its service and promptness. Is it still so? No way. I don’t think so. At least, in my opinion. If you asked me an opinion about ICICI Bank in 1998 or earlier, I would have given it a 5 star rating. No doubt about it. Will I give it the same, as I have been a customer for 5+ years? No. Not a chance. In the due course of this review, I shall analyze the pros and cons of this bank and compare it against other banks that I have known. What happened to a once an excellent bank these days? We shall see.
< << <<< HISTORY >>> >> >
To understand about this big bank, we need to understand how it became so big a force to reckon with. ICICI (Industrial Credit Investment Corporation of India) promoted the ICICI bank in 1994 with its stake reducing to 46% after the IPO in 1998. ICICI is a well-known name in India along with IDBI and was formed in 1955 at the initiative of the World Bank, Indian Government and Indian Industries. Both of these institutions have an exceptional brand-image and one of the highest possible ratings from CRISIL and other rating organizations. ICICI can be considered an oligopolistic corporation along with IDBI (please M2M me, if you want to discuss this!). ICIC listed in NYSE in 2000. In 2001 it underwent a tight marriage with Bank of Madura in a stock-only amalgamation. This was a tough marriage and I guess they are still suffering from this hiccup, which kind of substantiates their mediocre performance today, in my perspective. This and the merger with the ICICI Corporation have caused some management strain and some tough merger time. I could only wish they come over this and serve the customers in a better manner.
< << <<< MY ASSOCIATION >>> >> >
I first became an ICICI bank customer in 1998 when I became an NRI customer. Things were rather mundane and normal. Compared to the other big nationalized banks and Citibank, I felt ICICI Bank was the best and got some great feedback from friends and relatives alike. My initial relationship was excellent. This continued till 2001. All the facilities were of the highest grade. Their email follow-ups, request resolution, customer service and everything they served were of the highest grade. They also baffled me by calling me overseas with regard to certain transactions and request. So, I would have given a 5 star rating in 1998.
What changed since then?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This bank grew leaps and bounds ever since the IPO in 1998 as well as the NYSE listing in 2000. The numbers of customers were huge and the merger with Bank Of Madura added to the woes of the service. As there is a saying “Quality is inversely proportional to Quantity”, ICICI bank yielded to this very true philosophy. I am attaching an email I sent to their NRI center regarding a change of address for my NRI account that was taking more than 2 months as it involved a written mail, which they lost twice and didn’t do it right first time. A password reset for the infinity (infinitely, infinitesimally, infuriating, inferior information system) that took considerable amount of time and two couriers from them. They sent one to the wrong address, and the other one, to the right address with the wrong password.
Snippets from mail correspondence that took place from Feb 11th till Mid April :-)
Ø I have sent one more mail to the following address.
Ø > NRI Services Centre,
Ø > ICICI Bank, 2nd Floor, Maratha Mandir Annexe,
Ø > Dr. A. B. Nair Road
Ø > Mumbai - 400 008
Ø > India
Ø >
Ø If doing an address change should take such a long time and if your processes are so sterner and baseless with a mediocre customer-care follow-up, I definitely need to reconsider my options. I had opened an account in ICICI though I had quite a few options for an NRI account, in hope of having an excellent customer service.
Ø
Ø I'll have to rethink if my decision was correct. I have received similar complaints from my friends as well stating that the ''Quality of ICICI has gone down with Quantity'', proving the metaphor of ''Quality is Inversely proportional to Quantity''.
Ø
Ø I would definitely like to talk to some manager for NRI Services, for the same matter.
Ø
Ø Revert to me, if you still have any queries.
Ø
Ø Kalil Rahman
Ø
Ø --- NRI Cell <nri@icicibank.com> wrote:
Ø >
Ø > Dear Mr. Kalil,
Ø >
Ø > We apologize for the delay in our response.
Ø >
Ø >
Ø > With reference to your mail we would like to inform
Ø > you that we have not received your letter for
Ø address change.
Ø >
Ø > blah Blah Blah
< << <<< MY RATINGS >>> >> >
Reliability : --- 4 stars
This bank has some formidable backup and is highly reliable. The recent rumors leading to long queues in Ahmedabad and other places is just a fake alarm.
Customer Service : **½ --- 2 ½ stars
It has gone down the drain drastically over the past two years. Initially they were very helpful.
NRI Service : ½ --- ½ stars
The NRI Cells is one of the heavily loaded team, I presume. Their service has hit the “Mariana’s Trench” depths, If you ask me.
ATMs/Cheque/ Reports : ½ --- 3 ½ stars
It is good. Highly accessible with more than 1000 ATMs in India. The Cheque are abundant initially with good design. The quarterly/monthly statements are also good. A while back they wanted to charge some amount for NRI reports.
Web Presence : ** ½ --- 2 ½ stars
Good one. One of the first Indian banks to do so. Online Banking system is somewhat of a badly conceived system, in my opinion.
Online Money Transfer Option : Don't want to rate
I have been hearing and reading many nightmarish opinions about it. I have no plans of using it in the immediate future.
Overall experience : ** ½ --- 2 ½ stars
This bank is undergoing some troubled times. Give it has to manage more than a trillion rupees under its assets, give it some time to recover.
< << <<< MY CONCLUSION>>> >> >
All things considered, the ICICI bank is far ahead of many of the nationalized banks. As an NRI customer and a person used to excellent banking for quite sometime, I feel that this bank has some mediocre facilities and service. I will be reevaluating the opinion at a later point. I am just having an account after many unpleasant services and incidents.
Will I recommend ICICI Bank to anyone/ A Big NOOOOOO at least for now.
I Hope you liked the review, Please chip in your comments if you have time
Kalil
