Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Non-Tech : ICICI Ltd - (Nyse: IC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (230)	2/24/2000 11:02:00 AM
From: Mohan Marette	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 494

INTERVIEW-UTI Bankplans Internet banking utibank.com 24 Feb 2000 13:51 By Anirban Nag BOMBAY, Feb 24 (Reuters) - India's private sector UTI Bank <UTBK.BO> will launch Internet banking and make a major thrust into retail services in March *to catch up with leaders ICICI Bank* <ICBK.BO> and HDFC Bank** <HDBK.BO>, a senior official said on Wednesday. "Next month Internet banking will be available. It's going to be as fast as that," P.J. Nayak, chairman and managing director of UTI Bank, told Reuters in an interview late on Wednesday. India's largest mutual fund, the Unit Trust of India (UTI), is the main founder of the new generation private sector bank, and holds a large stake in it. "Very quickly we are going into electronic banking as well. The leaders are ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank, I believe the catch up is not very difficult if it is done quickly," said Nayak. The two banks introduced Internet banking services way ahead of others in the sector, triggering a sharp upward revision in their valuations. At the Bombay Stock Exchange, HDFC Bank opened at 220 rupees while ICICI Bank was at 158 rupees on Thursday. In comparison UTI Bank opened steady at 34 rupees. Nayak said the bank will offer B2B (business to business) products such as cash management services to its corporate clients and UTI. "One can extend this to a whole supply chain management function as far as remittances are concerned, ensuring all bills are settled electronically," said Nayak. He said the bank would roll out Business to Commerce (B2C) products, to enable its clients to engage in retail transactions at Web portals, as soon as cyberspace laws are in place. CYBER LAW SOON India's Minister for Information Technology (IT) Pramod Mahajan said this month an IT law to enable electronic commerce was likely to come into being by this summer. The bill paving the way for e-commerce, digital signatures and prevention of cyber crimes was introduced in parliament last year. "Once the encryption and cyberlaws are in place we will be ready for B2C commerce and we will tie-up with portals," Nayak said. Nayak said the bank was changing its IT backbone, in a move that prompted it to tie up with Infosys Technologies Ltd. <INFY.BO> and Wipro Ltd. <WIPR.BO>. The bank was moving to a centralised data base which will network all its 45 branches, he said. "The software backbone will be provided by Infosys while Wipro will lay the entire network," Nayak said. The UTI Bank chief said future competition between the new private sector banks will be in convenience banking. "We are planning a huge expansion in our ATM (Automated Teller Machines) network to ensure this. Today we have 45 on-site ATMs in our 45 branches and another twelve off-site ATMs. We are planning another 200 ATMs in the next six months," Nayak said. IMPROVE PROFITABLITY The UTI Bank chief declined to project a profit figure for the current financial year to March 2000 but said profits would jump next year. "We have just developed our business plan for next year and we believe profits will rise very substantially," he said. -Reuters via IF&LS