Date:10/01/2007 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/01/10/stories/2007011006040600.htm

Swipe your debit card and drive away a car

Our Bureau

EASIER CAR LOANS: Mr Rajiv Sabharwal (left), Senior General Manager, ICICI Bank, and Mr N. R. Narayanan, Head- Car & Commercial Vehicle Loan, at a press conference in Mumbai on Tuesday. - Paul Noronha

Mumbai , Jan. 9

As part of its retail banking initiative, ICICI Bank has introduced a new service of sanctioning car loans in about an hour for its savings bank account customers.

"Loans on the Spot" or LOTS allows a customer to swipe his debit card at the electronic data capture terminals, stationed at dealers' outlets, to check the pre-approved loan offered by the bank. The pre-approved loan offer is made to a customer based on his profile at ICICI Bank, taking into account the quarterly average balance and other parameters. The terminal will generate a unique number and a pre-approved slip, which the dealer can use to obtain a sanction from ICICI Bank.

In the first phase, the service will be available at Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Jaipur.

"We expect 10 per cent of car loans to come from this new service in the next four to five months," said Mr N.R. Narayanan, Head-Car and Commercial Vehicle Loans.

"In the first four-five days of the service being launched, a majority of the customers swiped debit cards for "B-segment" cars worth Rs 3.5-4 lakh," said a senior official from the bank.