Expressing ICICI Bank’s goals for the following fiscal year, Mr V Vaidyanathan, Executive Director, ICICI Bank, said that the Bank will focus on private banking, wealth management and advisory services, and raising low-cost deposits within the retail segment.

Mr Vaidyanathan used to work with Citibank N.A. before joining ICICI in 2000 in the personal financial services division. In 2003 he was designated as Senior General Manager of ICICI Bank. On October 24, 2006 he took over as the Executive Director.

He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a press conference to announce the bank’s ‘Read to lead’ initiative.

Under the initiative, ICICI Bank, in collaboration with the MV Foundation, Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences and Project Givelife-Shriram Social Welfare Trust, will provide formal elementary education to 1,00,000 children in the age group of 6-14 years in 2008-09. Elaborating on this, Mr. Vaidyanathan said that the bank has earmarked about Rs 12 crore for this initiative.

“There is big opportunity in the private banking and wealth management space,” he said.

Currently, the bank has around 2,500 clients with a balance of $1 million. The bank plans to increase its client base to 3,500 clients in this segment by the end of this year.

ICICI Bank is India's second-largest bank. Presently he Bank boasts of a network of about 573 branches and extension counters and over 2,000 ATMs.