Press Release

April 18, 2001

ICICI Bank's Internet Customers get a new Munshi

Log on to Infinity to access ICICI Bank Munshi

ICICI Bank's Retail Internet Banking customers now have a new assistant to help them manage their personal finance and taxation problems - the ICICI Bank Munshi.

This digital avatar of the traditional Munshi, who used to manage his master's finances, will facilitate on-line calculation of Income Tax and offline fulfillment by filing Income Tax Returns.

The service, which is the result of a strategic tie-up between ICICI Bank and Munshikaka.com, was launched in the city today. Munshikaka is promoted by Shailesh V Haribhakti, Managing Partner, Haribhakti & Co., and K N Vaidyanathan, former Business Head, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.

ICICI Bank is now the first bank in India to offer such on-line taxation and personal finance services coupled with offline fulfillment to its customers. With the aid of the ICICI Bank Munshi, the Bank will be offering filing of IT returns this year for their Retail Internet banking customers between June 1st and July 15th 2001. All completed tax returns generated through ICICI Bank Munshi will be accepted by representatives of Haribhakti & Co on Saturdays and Sundays at designated ICICI Bank branches during this period. Currently the service is being offered at 65 branches spread across nine cities.

Speaking at the launch of the service, Mohan Shenoi , Sr. Executive Vice President, ICICI Bank said, "We have believed in going the extra mile to bring additional value to our customers and broadening and deepening our relationship with them. The tie-up with Munshikaka is in tune with this philosophy. Over half a million Internet customers of ICICI Bank can now avail of this facility."

Shailesh Haribhakti, Chairman Advantage E-Accounting, the company that owns Munshikaka said, "Following the one-by-six model, there is expected to be a tremendous spurt in the number of people filing returns. The IT authorities have already indicated that for them to cope with this surge in numbers, they would soon be allowing on-line filing of returns. Services like ICICI Bank Munshi, which not only can accurately compute a person's taxes but also have the ability - when it is allowed - to file them on-line will be a great boon to the taxpayers as well as an excellent support for the Income Tax authorities."

ICICI Bank Munshi has a full-blown investment module that covers trading and investment in equities. It allows maintaining of inflows and outflows, incomes and expenses, budgets and reports.

Its state-of-the-art tax calculator can calculate income tax, advance tax covering all rules, provisions and deductions as per Indian IT laws. The system also facilitates printing of Income Tax returns. Each of these services is supported by an offline fulfillment mechanism to file returns. This offline fulfillment will be handled by Haribhakti & Co., a chartered accountancy firm of over 50 years' standing.

Apart from this, there is an extensive online library and regularly updated FAQs that can answer most taxation-related questions of ICICI Bank's Infinity customers.

According to K N Vaidyanathan MD & CEO, Advantage E-Accounting, "The services of ICICI Bank Munshi have been tailored with three Cs and one F in mind - Content, Counsel, Calculator and Fulfillment. What we hope to do is to take the latest that technology has to offer and marry it to the traditional service that the Munshi used to offer to his master."

The Bank has a unique product for salaried class called "Power Pay". The Bank has already garnered more than 6,00,000 customers under this segment. ICICI Bank Munshi services will be of immense help to this segment.

Disclaimer
Except for the historical information contained herein, statements in this Release which contain words or phrases such as 'will', 'would', 'aim', 'will likely result', 'believe', 'expected', 'will continue', 'anticipate', 'estimate', 'enable', 'enabling', '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 and ICICI's Group's ability to obtain statutory and regulatory approvals and to successfully implement our strategy, the actual growth in demand for banking products and services, investment income, cash flow projections, our exposure to market risks as well as other risks detailed in the reports filed by us with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The Bank undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof.

For more information contact:
Mr. Mohan Shenoi
Senior Executive Vice President
ICICI Bank
Tel . 653 8418

K N Vaidyanathan,
Munshikaka.com,
91 22 4602211