ICICI Bank launches ‘iBox’, a unique self-service delivery facility for customers

ICICI Bank has launched a unique self-service delivery facility, enabling its customers to collect their deliverables such as debit card, credit card, cheque book and returned-cheques, from a branch close to their home or office, in a hassle free manner, anytime any day. 
 
The Bank has introduced the facility, called ‘iBox’, at over 50 branches in 17 cities in the country. This facility is especially useful for customers who are not available at home to receive their package during working hours. 
 
The ‘iBox’ terminals have been stationed outside the premises of the Bank’s branches which are accessible beyond the official hours. It is equipped with an OTP based authentication system for enhanced security and can be accessed by customers using their registered mobile number 24X7, on all days including holidays. 
 
The customer can avail of this first-of-its-kind facility if the branch, where they want to take delivery of the package containing their banking deliverable, houses an ‘iBox’ terminal. The fully automated process informs the customer of the current status of their package via an SMS at every stage-- from dispatch to delivery. 
 
Once the package arrives in the ‘iBox’ terminal, an SMS notification is sent to the customer, which carries the GPS location of the ‘iBox’, an OTP and a QR code. The customer has to then visit the ‘iBox’, enter his/her registered mobile number and submit the OTP or show the QR code to open the box and access the package. 
 
The deliverable stays in the ‘iBox’ for seven days during which the customer can collect at any time of the day. The iBox therefore, brings in more flexibility for the customers and eliminates the need to visit the branch during busy working hours.
 
Speaking on the initiative, Mr. Sandeep Batra, President, ICICI Bank said, “We have always been pioneering innovative and path-breaking banking solutions for enhancing the convenience for our customers. ‘iBox’ facility enhances our offering  to take banking to our customers when they want it. They can collect these deliverables at a time of their choosing, 24x7, and on all days including holidays.
 
The Bank has equipped the delivery facility with a robust security mechanism, which includes features like OTP based authentication and live tracking of the status of the dispatched deliverables. This ensures that the documents stay safe till the time they are collected by their designated recipients. The ‘iBox’ facility also aids the Bank in decongesting its branches, thereby leaving more time for customer engagement.” 
 

User

  Loading...
  Loading...

To continue


Please
Sign Up or Sign In
with

Email

We are listening!

Solve the equation and enter in the Captcha field.

Changes in Our Business Model
 
 
25th Sept 2020
 
Greetings from Moneylife Advisory Services
 
Between financial years 2019-21, SEBI has come up with extensive changes to investor advisor regulations. On Sep 23, 2020, SEBI had issued new additional guidelines. This comes just two months after extensive changes announced in July 2020. Earlier, in December 2019 there was an ad hoc circular
 
As a result of these changes, IAs, cannot accept fees through credit cards, will have to sign a 26-clause investor agreement, have to maintain physical record written & signed by client, telephone recording, emails, SMS messages and any other legally verifiable record for five years. IAs were already asked to record the suitability and rationale for every piece of advice given, sign them and store them for five years.
 
While these extensive and frequent changes, designed to strengthen the conduct of IAs are well-meaning, these have sharply increased compliance efforts and cost. We, being online advisors, find many of changes harder to implement, compared to advisors working in the physical space. We will have to have an army of advisors, administrative and tech staff to be compliant. If we do this, we will have to divert money to these areas and the cost of our service will double. We want to remain the least-cost service in the market to benefit more and more people. In the circumstances, we are forced to change our business model from “advisory” to “research”. This will mean the following:
 
What remains the same:
  • Recommendations on insurance, investment and Lion stocks, will continue as a part of the MAS premium subscription. Our strength has always been research and this will remain available to you through our recommendations.
  • The magazine and all textual content will remain as part of the service
  • We will have to suspend the restructuring tool.
 
What changes:
  • The interactions in Ask / Handholding will offer investment advice but not specific to your situation. It will offer information on investment products and also clarify your doubts about various financial products. It will be a forum for information, not for advice. This will be implemented with immediate effect and our guidelines in Ask, reflect this now.
 
Over the next few weeks our site and our communication to you will reflect these and other additional changes.
 
We feel this will not affect you much in terms of what really matters in investing: knowing what to buy and when to buy. This is our edge and it will still be available to you.
 
img
Debashis Basu
Founder