Is ICICI an Indian Bank… do xenophobic overtones hurt its custom? Blog Discussion

meher

But it largely depends on how they project themselves, isn't it? ICICI says theirs in an Indian financial institution so I suppose that would be the way it should be informed to people, whereas ING Direct, for instance, maintains no such image and merely states in their profile that they are Authorised and regulated by De Nederlandsche Bank. Yes, there may be some who don't look beyond names but then I'd say, any xenophobic attitude, if at all, is just a fringe of the society and probably best for the bank as well not to have to deal with the likes, so I don't see why it shouldn't be given a profile they have chosen.

Saucepot

I'd rather stick my money in an Indian bank than an Icelandic one.

I think for most retail banking, there is a strong element of trust related to branding. Most of the Highstreet British banks have been there for generations and are familiar to customers. Until recently the thought of a British bank going bust was laughable. My old economics master used to tell me it was the nearest thing to impossible.

The current financial turmoil will make punters wary of foreign banks, and to some degree with good reason. Regardless of the government promises of whatever nation, most of the promises made are in worse case scenario untenable, and any government is going to favour domestic voters before foriegners. Here is Britian you are at least a domestic voter, and not a foriegner.

The rating agencies do price Indian government debt as riskier than British government debt, and in any bank account you are lending money to a bank, usually with some sort of government guarentee from somewhere. Though an indian bank taking retail customers in the UK, would have the same FSA guarentees as any, I would guess. Tax dodgers open accounts abroad, and if you do that, you take your chances.

MSE affords some great information on price, to assist in making financial decisions, but in any endevour price is not the only factor. Customer service, trust, all manner of things are significant.

I have no dealing with ICICI, and thus cannot say what manner of outfit they are, but if customers are wary I would not blame xenophobia. It is perfectly rational to be wary. It ought to be an indication that ICICI have work to do building brand awareness and trust.

I did once walk into a branch of "The Islamic Bank of Britain" and ask, "Whats islamic banking all about then?" and a rather polite young chap gave me a wonderful explanation and informed me that you don't have to be a muslim. Got the impression you couldn't fault the customer service.

JimmyTheWig

Fascinatingly, I’ve just learned the link to Rothschild bank was massively more popular than the one to ICICI. Now some of this may be because Rothschild is a new product and therefore some people will already be up to their safe savings limit in ICICI, but I suspect the majority is due to the phrase “UK subsidiary of Indian bank”, even though later we explain that it has the same protection.

Do you have any statistics on how many people signed up for each account having clicked your link?
Do you have any statistics as to how long the people who clicked each link has been receiving your emails?

My point is that for those of us who have been around this website for months or more have probably looked at the ICICI website before. It's been in and around your top picks for ages.
As it happens, my wife has an ICICI account but even if we weren't with them I would have had a look at them at some point from reading your articles and emails.
Also as it happens, I didn't get around to reading the email that we are talking about. But I am sure that if I had done I probably would have clicked the Rothschild link out of interest. I definitely wouldn't have clicked the ICICI link and I definitely wouldn't have signed up for either account.
If the majority of your readers are like me then that explains the discrepancy but also points out that Rothschild haven't benefited from anything and ICICI haven't lost out. [And if you get paid by the click rather than the application then Rothschild are the ones to lose out!]

Mr_Mumble

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Is HSBC - floated in the UK but ultimately the "Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation" so Chinese

Martin

Using that kind of logic the East India Company wasn't British! Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation was founded by Thomas Sutherland, a Scotsman, in 1865.

:beer:

Netjude

After checking them out on the net I decided to invest a sizeable sum of money with ICICI. However, I have never been able to access my account on line, the password they sent did not work and they seemed incapable of sorting it out. I asked them to close the account and return my money within the 14 days cooling off period in accordance with their terms and conditions. They have, since then, done nothing but lie and attempt to mislead me about my rights and entitlements and it seems I have a big fight ahead to get my money back.

I did not mind that the bank was "Indian" as I invested in the UK branch in any event. What I do mind is any people, whatever their nationality behaving in such a way that I can no longer trust them or what they say. Big Shame on them. I wouldnt touch them again, ever!:mad: