ICICI Bank to launch new products for NRIs

ICICI Bank, India's largest private sector bank, yesterday announced a strategic alliance with Russell Investment Group, global leaders in multi-manager investments, to offer a range of multi-manager investment portfolios to its international clients.

The clients include non-resident Indians (NRIs) and persons of Indian origin (PIOs), and the portfolios will be offered through its offshore branch at Singapore.

This partnership, according to an ICICI statement, will enable ICICI Bank to provide a range of customised multi-manager investment solutions that offer access to the world's leading investment managers covering the full range of asset classes and investment styles outside India.

Bhargav Dasgupta, senior general manager and head of International Banking at ICICI Bank, said there are currently more than 20 million NRIs worldwide, representing a huge potential market.

"ICICI Bank is the first Indian bank to offer international private banking and has close linkages with and an understanding of the needs of the international Indian diaspora," said Dasgupta.

He added that the partnership with Russell provides ICICI Bank s with an opportunity to address the needs of its high net worth clients and deliver a world class investment solution used by some of the world's largest institutional investors.

"These multi-manager portfolios will form the core component of our investment proposition offered to our clients," Dasgupta added.

Bruce Pflaum, Russell's managing director for Asia, said: "Russell is enthused by the relationship with ICICI Bank, which is clearly at the forefront of providing solutions to the global NRI and PIO market. This is a very attractive market for Russell and we believe that ICICI Bank is well positioned to service this market."

Minimising the risk

Explaining the benefits of a multi-manager investment programme, Pflaum said, "The ICICI Bank-Russell relationship will ensure that ICICI Bank's NRI investors will have access to many of the world's best investment managers while minimising the risk of over-reliance on any single-manager approach. Russell will be responsible for continually managing and monitoring the underlying investment managers within the investment programme, making changes when it is deemed beneficial."

According to a recent report by Cerulli Associates, multi-manager investing is the fastest growing segment in the investment industry worldwide, with multi-manager assets more than doubling since 1997.

Russell is a pioneer in this field, with the largest market share.

Assets under management in worldwide multi-manager products are expected to continue expanding at 14 per cent compounded annually through 2008, exceeding $1 trillion (Dh3.67 trillion) by 2006.