ICICI to expand private banking

ICICI Bank is expanding its private banking business by adding relationship managers and increasing point of presence in tier II and tier-III cities to tap the growing wealth of businessmen, especially small- and medium-sized entrepreneurs.

The wealth management business in India grew by 18.3 per cent 2006 against 7.6 per cent in China. The bank has seen about 65 per cent annual growth in the last three years, bank general manager (private banking) Anup Bagchi said.

The investible assets are growing rapidly in country in tandem with high economic growth (in excess of 9 per cent per annum for the last two years).

The bank has built a team of 450 relationship managers in the country to meet demand for wealth management services from people with investible assets of Rs 10 lakh and above, he said.

The bank did not disclose assets under management's and number of clients handled by private banking unit.

The attrition rate in relationship managers in bank is 25 per cent, reflecting scarcity of talent. Besides traditional entities, competition in private banking comes from chartered accountants, ing this in focus, bank has tied up with 80 management schools to run courses on private banking in MBA courses to increase pool of managers

The personal wealth industry of the Asia-Pacific region is estimated to be $7.6 trillion.