Disclaimer: The ideas and opinions presented herein are solely the author’s imagination and in no way represent the ideas and opinions of any individual or organization. Any resemblance of such sort is purely coincidental.
This will surely bring cheers to millions of Indians who are aspiring to buy a four-wheeler, especially car. Known for its innovative ideas and always one step ahead of their competitors, ICIC Bank, the largest private bank in the country, announced to launch “Fuel-rich-Car Loan”.
In a media release yesterday, marketing head of the bank said “This product, as the name suggests, would have a loan component, on top of the usual four-wheeler finance, to cover the fuel cost for operating the car for a period ranging from 3 to 10 years. Keeping in view the current economic conditions and considering the dip in the car loan business, it could well prove a Game-Changing idea for the bank.”
On being queried, if the product is inspired by the latest increase in fuel price, the official answered “The idea was being considered for long. As per an A. B. Nielsen survey, conducted in 2009, “Rising Price of Fuel” emerged as the prime de-motivator for prospective car buyers’. The survey comprised 5000 respondents and was conducted across four metros – Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai. The survey result gave us some food for thought. Then, the idea was conceived and it’s a result of tremendous effort put in by our product team in designing the offer which has enabled us to present it to you.”
In reply to the tentative date of launch of the product, he said “We believe that there could have been no better time than now to make the announcement. Also, as the festive season has already kicked-off and most of the customers would be gearing up to buy a car around Diwali, we have decided to launch the product on 1st October. This would give sufficient buffer time to the market to accept the product before Diwali. Moreover, this being a new-age offering, initially it is bound to take a little more time to process the loan requests. To handle the same and expected surge in applications due to festive season, we have planned to deploy more resources in the line of fire on this front.”
He sounded very upbeat putting forward the bank’s forecast on the acceptability and demand of their product. “We believe that owning a car is like realizing a dream, for every Indian. With this offering, we expect to equip our prospective customers with the much needed catalyst to realize their dream. Further, the Petrol prices, across Indian cities, have almost doubled in the last two years. Similar is the case with Diesel. Also, with the depreciating Rupee, rising Inflation rate in the country, and depleting crude reserves across the world; fuel prices are expected to feel more pressure in future. Various industry and financial analysts hold similar views. It is like the Working Capital fund, which is provided to organizations to run their business on a day-to-day basis. We are anticipating a healthy response and ready to capitalize on the opportunity, which will add to our asset business,” the official said.
Going forward the bank plans to launch a stand-alone “Fuel Loan”, which would offer a loan to cover the fuel costs to operate four-wheelers. As mentioned by the marketing head, this product is still in nascent stages and further development would depend on the response to the “Fuel-rich-Car Loan”.
When contacted, some renowned industry analysts and banking experts foresee it changing the dynamics of the banking industry and consequently the whole economy in the long run.
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