ICICI Bank, India's largest private sector bank, today announced the inauguration of its 4000th bank branch at Sector 37D in Chandigarh. It is the first private sector bank in the country to achieve this milestone. Additionally, the bank also inaugurated over 50 branches in other parts of the country during the day, thereby taking its total branch count to 4050.
The bank's branch footprint covers 2300 locations across the country from Sopore in Jammu & Kashmir to Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu to Naliya in Gujarat and Mokokchung in Nagaland.
Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank said, ''We believe that a wide branch network is a cornerstone of retail banking. It also helps deepen the relationship with the customer as it forms a focal point for a range of products & services like mortgages, other loans and investments. Today’s important milestone is yet another step towards providing our customers improved access and proximity to the Bank's services. 52% of our branches are in rural and semi-urban areas, which is also a testimony of our commitment towards financial inclusion in the country. This has enabled us to open over two million accounts under the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana-the highest among private sector banks.
We are among the pioneers in evolving newer branch models suited to the changing environment and various customer segments. These vary from the longest branch banking hours from 9am to 6pm at most of our retail branches, even upto 8pm at select locations to the largest network in the country of fully automated, 24x7 'Touch Banking' branches. The Bank also has 450 'Gramin' branches and its mobile 'Branch-On-Wheels' for servicing remote unbanked villages which so far did not have any bank branch. We service around half-a-million customers daily at our branches and are fully committed to expand our branch network even further. We will add over 400 branches in the next fiscal, which is equivalent to the branch network of a small bank.''
Shares of the bank declined Rs 3.05, or 0.96%, to settle at Rs 315.30. The total volume of shares traded was 818,541 at the BSE (Tuesday).
