ICICI eyes insurance sector

Jeanne Lim / Singapore

How does a bank make the most out of the expertise it has acquired over time with its technology department? Spin it off and turn it into a money-making independent company, which was just what India’s largest private bank, ICICI Bank, did. Today, ICICI Infotech is a $50 million firm listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and is busy ramping up its enterprise software applications and IT services business in the Asia-Pacific. Its software products include specific banking and insurance applications, and ERP software tailored for SMBs in the manufacturing, retail, and logistics and distribution sectors.

After years of developing and honing its own software know-how internally, ICICI is now equipped with its own software intellectual property. And for both vendor and customers, this is good news, said ICICI Infotech Asia-Pacific’s president, Debneel Mukherjee. “As we own our codes, it gives us flexibility to make changes to the software ourselves. Our software is also easily configurable, customisable, and we can fine-tune it according to the customer’s needs,” he said.

Meanwhile, ICICI has singled out the insurance sector as an area that would fuel ICICI’s growth.

Not many people are aware of this, but Islamic insurance is very much in demand in countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and in the Middle East region, he revealed. “There is liberalisation happening in the insurance markets around ASEAN, and there’s an urgent need to infuse technology into the insurance markets there, and that’s where we come in,” he said.

The company started its Asia-Pacific operations in November 2000, with the regional headquarters in Singapore. It operates its South Asian business, which also covers Pakistan and Nepal, out of India.

This article first appeared in Asia Computer Weekly