MUMBAI: Largest private sector lender ICICI BankBSE 0.31 % in collaboration with Tech MahindraBSE -1.34 % launched a payment service 'Tap-n-Pay' based on the near-field communications (NFC) technology, enabling customers make over-the-counter payments without using cash.

It can be used for merchant payments by merely tapping a NFC-enabled mobile phone or a tag on the counter.

After HDFC and State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank on Tuesday cut home loan rates, triggering a rate war in the segment.

ICICI Bank reduced home loan rates by 25 basis points for all customers. With this announcement, women as well as applicants from weaker sections will get home loans at 9.85 per cent. The rate will be 9.90 per cent for others. The reduced rate will be effective from April 14.

Three leading banks of the country cut their lending rates on Tuesday, hours after Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan dismissed the argument of banks that their marginal cost of funds had not fallen despite two rate cuts by the central bank in the last four months as “nonsense”.

On a day when the RBI left its key policy rates unchanged and banks appeared reluctant to lower rates saying that their cost of funds had not fallen, it was some tough talking by Rajan which seemed to goad banks into action.

Benchmark indices are trading lower in the noon trades owing to selling pressure in rate sensitive stocks after the Reserve Bank of India kept the repo and reverse repo rates unchanged at 7.5 and 8.5 per cent each respectively at its policy meet today.

Real estate stocks are the worst hit as a cut in interest rates would have helped banks lower EMIs which would have in turn helped real estate companies in increasing their sales.

MUMBAI: When a customer calls up ICICI Bank in coming weeks, in the 10 seconds that he introduces himself the bank's servers will identify his account details and authenticate his identity by picking a voice sample and matching it with the database. Not just that, in future voice data would be analyzed to identify whether the caller is agitated, irate or in a hurry to avoid cross-sell pitches.

ICICI Bank has become the first in the country and among the few in the world to deploy voice-recognition technology for biometric authentication. The new facility will enable customers to call up and ask for funds to be transferred to registered beneficiaries or bills to be paid without having to enter 16-digit numbers or keying in their PIN.

MUMBAI: ICICI Bank said on Wednesday over half of its 4,000 branches will be open for general business on Thursday, a public holiday on the occasion of Mahavir Jayanti.

"Our branches will remain open and will operate as per regular business hours on April 2, except for branches in Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh," the country's largest private lender said in a statement.

ICICI Bank, the largest private sector lender in the country, on Monday said it had received capital repatriation from its subsidiaries in Canada and the United Kingdom this month.

“The bank has, in March, received further equity capital repatriation of Canadian $80 million from ICICI Bank Canada and $75 million from ICICI Bank UK,” the private lender stated.

Leading private sector lenders ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank have cut rates by up to 0.25% on high value fixed deposit on select maturities, a move that could be a precursor to lower lending rates.

The rates have been revised downwards for deposits over Rs 1 crore by 0.25% by ICICI Bank effective today, sources said.

Markets recovered from day's lows but continued to remain volatile helped by a rebound in bank and information technology shares even as select index heavyweights capped upside gains.

At 2:30PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 6 points at 27,463 and the 50-share Nifty was down 8 points at 8,334.

Ortel IPO fails to liquidate PE's holding AbhiBus to raise $10 million from PE funds Private equity-venture capital space witnesses churning at top From despondency to hope in one year If there is one sour point for private equity (PE) investors in India, it's the lack of exits. Most PE fund managers have struggled to generate enough number of exits on their investments and return capital to their investors. However, ICICI Venture has posted exits worth $975 million across 41 deals since April 2009, including $760 million in PE exits.

April 2009 is when Vishakha Mulye took over as the managing director and chief executive officer of ICICI Venture Funds Management Company.

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