From class banking to mass banking

Suburban locations in India are witnessing a real estate and retail boom with a lot of residential and commercial complexes being built out there. Now, banks are also aggressively targeting such centres for business by opening new branches in such areas. Says Maninder Juneja, head, retail liabilities, ICICI Bank, "Customer behaviour and transaction studies have shown us that customers have a tendency to approach the nearest bank branch for all their transaction needs. Moreover, customer footfall in a suburb branch is at par with a comparative branch in a metro." More than 150 ICICI Bank branches are located in the metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. "The suburbs of these four metros are supported by around 20% of these branch numbers. Suburban locations are a key focus area in our branch expansion plan for this year too," says Juneja.

From class banking to mass banking