Mumbai, July 7 (IANS) India’s largest private sector bank ICICI Monday became the first bank in the country to launch ‘B-2 Branch-free Banking’. ICICI bank executive director V. Vaidyanathan told reporters here: “B2-Branch-free Banking is a unique way of direct banking, which will allow customers to manage all their finances online.”

“We have implemented this system abroad and it has become very successful. In the UK we have more than 123,000 customers, in Canada 67,000 customers and in Germany 9,000 customers,” he added.

Through branch-free banking, one can obtain all information in single interface to facilitate banking transactions over the internet, Vaidyanathan said.

In the future, the bank will add asset products schemes using this facility. “We will add personal loans, auto loans and credit cards in branch-free banking,” he said.

Customers opting for branch-free banking can benefit from zero charges, and no minimum balance is required.

Moreover, if the balance exceeds Rs.5,000, money will be automatically transferred, in multiples of Rs.5,000, to a linked fixed deposit that will earn ICICI Bank fixed deposit rates.

“B2 Branch-free Banking is a new way of banking. India has over 49 million internet connections and this number is growing at around 20 percent. So this innovation of banking ‘only’ on the net will gather momentum,” Vaidyanathan said.

He added that the bank would soon launch a new initiative called SMS in cash. Through, this, the customers can transfer money to a non-ICICI account holder through ATM using cell phone.