India’s largest private lender ICICI Bank has launched the country’s first mortgage guarantee-backed home loan product. This will expand the credit amount and increase the tenure for an additional fee as well. Chanda Kochchar, the MD and CEO of the bank has announced that it will help customers raise the eligible amount by up to 20 per cent and increase the tenure by up to seven years. The product has been launched in association with the India Mortgage Guarantee Corporation, which will guarantee the incremental risk.

• ICICI Bank Extraa Home Loans can be availed only after paying a one-time mortgage guarantee fee to be paid at the start.
• The fee will depend on the age of the borrower, extension in tenure, the nature of her income – whether she is salaried or self-employed – and the loan-to-value ratio.

It can be recalled that over-leveraging of property by multiple loans is one of the reasons for the collapse of the American banking system in 2008, which led to the collapse of the global economy with the fall of Lehman Brothers and many other Wall Street titans.

Tidbits

• ICICI Bank won an award in the BFSI Leadership Summit & Awards in the ‘Best Phone Banking for End-users’ category.
• ICICI Bank has been declared as the first runner up at Outlook Money Awards 2015 in the category of ‘Best Bank’.