News Release
Mumbai, May 16, 2000
ICICI (NYSE: IC & IC.d) launches Billjunction.com: The easy way to
pay your bills
ICICI Ltd (NYSE: IC and IC.d) today launched BillJunction - India's first
on-line Bill presentment and payment service. This most recent e-service
introduced by ICICI will enable account holders in any bank to instruct
for the presentment of their utility bills on the Internet and also make
the payments through their respective bank accounts.
Bill Junction would use RBI's Electronic Clearing Service (ECS) mechanism
to enable the payments. BillJunction, hence, brings together various banks
and utility service providers on the same technology platform to provide
world-class service to customers.
This technology application is powered by PayAway, a new software developed
by Infosys Technologies Ltd, India's leading software company.
Bill Junction has tied up with major utility service providers in Mumbai
including BEST, BPL Mobile, Orange and VSNL. Bill Junction will tie-up
with other billers in the coming weeks.
How Bill Junction works -
Bill Junction offers the service in a three-step process - Bill presentment,
bill payment and bill archiving.
- Bill Junction has tied up with Billers who send bill details electronically.
Bill details are compiled into a convenient summary and posted in the
customer's personal Bill Inbox.
- Customers are sent an e-mail notification each time a new bill arrives.
- Customers can review the bills online and schedule payments.
- Bill Junction pays as per the instruction of the customer and sends
an e-mail confirmation.
- The customer's bill details are then filed online so that it can be
readily accessed later
- Bill Junction has also tied up with service providers who are presently
unable to send bill details electronically. These types of service providers
are called Payees. Customers can avail Bill Junction's services to make
payments to Payees as and when they receive paper bills
Special Features of Bill Junction -
No new bank account- BillJunction does not require a customer
to open a bank account in any specific bank to avail of this service because
BillJuction could debit customer's existing bank account.
E-mail notification - BillJunction has a comprehensive suite of
emails to keep a customer informed at all times. It would send an email
to a customer as soon as a bill arrives, an email reminder before a bill
becomes overdue and an email confirmation once the bill payment has been
made.
Bill payment and tracking - BillJunction gives a single page snapshot
as well as details of all pending bills. It also indicates the details
of all the payments scheduled by the customer.
Manual-pay and Auto-pay - The Manual-pay feature allows the customer
to authorise each and every individual payment. The Auto-pay facility
allows the customer to set predetermined limits for any of the billers.
BillJunction will automatically pay the bill as long as the bill amount
is within the preset limit.
Archiving of bills - BillJunction archives bills and payment details
for the past twelve months online and last three years offline. This feature
allows the customers to generate customized reports of previously paid
bills at any time.
Security - The site has been certified by Verisign and it uses
128-bit encryption code, the maximum level of encryption possible on the
Internet. The Secured Socket Layer (SSL) process ensures network level
security and the encrypted URLs ensure application level security.
ICICI has over the last few years made significant progress in creating
a strong retail focus and building the personal financial services business.
The most critical driver in the personal financial services business is
the customer and ICICI has been making substantial efforts to strengthen
its relationship with the customer. The first initiative in this process
was to create a strong brand, which is a key to acceptance of products
and services. The second initiative was to become a provider of the entire
range of financial services. ICICI presently offers one of the most comprehensive
portfolios for its customers to meet all their requirements across the
life cycle. The third initiative was to build a technology enabled distribution
network with multiple access points to provide ready access to all customers.
As a result of all the above, ICICI has been successful in building a
strong retail franchise with over 3 million retail investors and an established
market presence.
Leveraging the Internet for the core financial services business
The Internet has transformed the dynamics of traditional markets with
superior cost efficiencies, effective reach and customised services. ICICI
believes that Internet access and information is the key to satisfying
the needs of certain customer segments. ICICI intends to use the Internet
to offer new innovative solutions to attract new customers and increase
retention of customers. Accordingly, ICICI intends to expand customer
base and enhance and enrich customer relationships by building portals
across businesses to meet a wider range of customer needs. This is in
line with strategies being followed by successful banks in developed markets.
ICICI would be reaching out to retail customers in many innovative ways
and has recently launched a housing portal indiahomeseek.com, a shopping
mall magiccart.com and a city portal cafemumbai.com. The launch of Billjunction.com
is the fourth such initiative under this strategic focus.
Except for the historical information contained herein, statements
in this release which contain words or phrases such as "will", "aim",
"will likely result", "believe", "expect", "will continue", "anticipate",
"estimate", "intend", "plan", "contemplate", "seek to", "future", "objective",
"goal", "project", "should", "will pursue" and similar expressions or
variations of such expressions may constitute "forward-looking statements".
These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties
and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially
from those suggested by the forward-looking statements. These risks and
uncertainties include, but are not limited to our ability to successfully
implement various portals, our strategy, future levels of non-performing
loans, our growth and expansion, the adequacy of our allowance for credit
losses, technological changes, investment income, cash flow projections,
our exposure to market risks as well as other risks detailed in the reports
filed by ICICI Limited with the Securities and Exchange Commission of
the United States. ICICI undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking
statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date thereof.
For further investor queries:
Contact: A.P Singh at 91-22-653 6262 or email
at singhap@icici.com