Friday At ICICI
Some savers with Indian bank ICICI were unable to access their accounts on Friday afternoon.
This article was revised on the morning of Saturday, October 11th.
On Friday afternoon, we couldn't access the ICICI.co.uk website at Fool HQ, although ICICI.com was still up and running. We heard other reports of similar problems elsewhere in the UK.
Friday's problems were worrying for UK savers, as they followed a poor day's trading for the bank. Shares finished 20% down in Mumbai trading, meaning the bank was the worst performer among financial stocks in Asia on the day. The FT reported that the shares fell on concerns about the bank's operations outside India. However, the bank has a strong capital adequacy ratio of 13.4% compared to the regulatory requirement of 9%.
There were reports on Tuesday of Indian depositors with the bank queuing up at branches and ATMs in the cities of Karnatka and Andraha Pradesh and withdrawing their cash.
However, the good news is that we can access the site on Saturday morning.
A spokesperson for ICICI told Fool.co.uk that there had been no problems with ICICI's server on Friday. It was an issue with some, but not all, internet service providers accessing the site.
The spokesperson stressed that all transactions had been accepted as normal over the telephone, and extra callers in the bank's call centre had been laid on to deal with any extra enquiries. The UK number is 08081 314 151.
Are my savings safe?
Savings with the bank are protected under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to £50,000 - and as with Icesave, the Government is likely to step in if there is a problem.
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Comments
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Had 69k in a theoretically JOINT accoint (which still listed solely under my name)[br/][br/]Over last week have dropped balance to 50k as a precaution - all transfers were on time - agree terrible website, but it does the job.[br/][br/]I am happy to leave at this level - i don't want to contribute to the problem
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The reason most of us put our money into ICICI was that it was paying amongst the best rates, and appeared to be reasonably safe. However it is no longer among the best rates, and because how seemingly safe it is, is determined by the banking professionals based on the CDS of its parent company, it is now down at the bottom of the table published by the Fool in its recent "Good, the Bad & the Ugly" email. So many non panicking Fools will be quite calmly and sensibly reviewing their savings and deciding where best to place them.[br/][br/]Regarding this slow on-line access problem, there is an alternative. Fools may or not be aware that if you have not accessed your ICICI account for 6 months your access is automatically disabled. This happned to me so I phoned up. I was offered the option of authorising the transfer to my linked account over the phone, which I did following the ineviatable barage of security questions. Two alternatives - a free BACS transfer taking 3-4 working days, or a £20 CHAPS transfer ostensibly taking 24 hours. I say ostensibly because the confirming email now advises me that it will be processed in 2 working days, which Fools may wish to keep in mind if they may want their money in a hurry.
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This is the type of knee jerk response that causes banks to collapse, don't we have enough with irresponsible reporters screaming banking collapse, without having everyone else running around like sheep, following their lead. [br/][br/]Headless chickens would be another terminology applicable in this case too.
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24 October 2008