No negative infra surprise; focus on savings A/Cs: ICICI

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Below is an edited excerpt of Chanda Kochhar's interaction with the press including CNBC-TV18's Gopika Gopakumar.

Q: What is the status of your deposits? How different is your reward plan from those of other banks and what do you expect to achieve as the saving rates at private-sector banks are usually very high?

A: Our deposit base has grown 15 percent year-on-year and this has resulted in total deposits of Rs 2, 81,438 crore. Our growth in CASA (current and savings accounts) has been healthy and the savings-account deposits have grown by 15 percent. So the total savings-deposit base is
Rs 81,000 crore. Almost 70 percent of the total deposit base constitutes deposits from the retail.

The new reward programme, 'my rewards', that we have launched for savings-account holders is unique because our savings-deposit customers will be rewarded for every transaction and not just on new business. So in a way, it's our approach and initiative to build a long-term relationship with our customers as transact and use our products and services.

We believe that the savings account is a transaction product. The customer uses fixed deposits for taking benefit of interest rates and we have a very competitive interest rate for fixed deposits. But as the rest of the customer’s funds are deposited in the savings account, we will be giving them continued benefit for using their savings-accounts.

Q: You have cut home loan rate by 1 percent. Do you think after December 31 you would be able to maintain this rate or do you have plans of extending it further?

A: For now it is a festive offer and is valid for the festive season. But going forward, interest rates will depend on the broad economic scenario.

Q: You have maintained margins at 3 percent. Going forward, do you expect any kind of a pressure on margins?

A: No, our target is to at least maintain the margins at 3 percent. Though we plan to improve margins slightly, we definitely will maintain them at 3 percent.

Q: By how much has credit grown? What have been the main drivers for the growth of your corporate and international books?

A: Our credit growth has been around 18 percent on a y-o-y basis for this quarter and is quite well-diversified. The retail portfolio has grown by about 14 percent. The international book has grown by about 6 percent and the rest of the growth is in the domestic corporate book.