ICICIdirect Qualifies for KPMG's First ``Web Seal'' in Asia.

Business Editors

MUMBAI, India--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 18, 2001

ICICIdirect (NYSE:IC), India's leading online share trading company announced today that it has received the first "Web Seal" in Asia, a seal of assurance awarded to companies in the Internet world with 'control conscious business operations,' issued by global advisory and audit firm KPMG. In a short span of 18 months, ICICIdirect has emerged as a benchmark by instituting global best practices in the broking industry. This is also the first "KPMG Webseal," which has been issued to any company in the Asian Region.

KPMG is one of the leading global advisory firms assisting clients in providing assurance about management's internal controls in safeguarding stakeholders' interests. The KPMG Web Seal is issued on various aspects of management controls including management's assertions, internal controls, information processing, privacy, security, web page hits or agreed upon procedures, etc.

This Web Seal has been issued by KPMG to ICICIdirect after assessing ICICIdirect's assertions on key business processes as detailed later.

Based on its examination, KPMG has issued the "Web Seal on management's assertions" to ICICIdirect. The visitors to the web site (www.icicidirect.com) can click on KPMG's Web Seal to view KPMG's report detailing the work performed by independent experts.

Madhabi Puri Buch, MD & Chief Executive Officer, ICICIdirect, said: "KPMG Web Seal is an affirmation of our step towards our constant quest of delivering consistent quality to our customers. We would strive harder to meet and exceed our customer's expectations and to be worthy of their trust. This Web Seal from KPMG has confirmed our ability to deliver world class service to our customers."

According to Sanjay Dhawan, who heads the Information Risk Management practice of KPMG, "Qualifying for KPMG's Web Seal is not an easy task. The client has to go through a very rigorous process, where the KPMG global experts thoroughly review the effectiveness, consistency and management of the internal controls over a period of time. It is the ICICIdirect's commitment towards control consciousness, which has culminated to issuance of a Web Seal by KPMG."

The `KPMG Web Seal' service is valuable to the Internet-enabled organizations, where:

-- The web site is used for conducting on-line financial transactions

-- Visitors to the web site are asked to provide personal information

-- The accuracy of information (financial or otherwise) displayed on the site
is of essence

The business processes for which KPMG has issued the "Web Seal" are for:

-- Process compliance that at the end of the settlement cycle,

`Pay-in' and `Pay-Out' are effected to the client's DP account

in accordance with client's obligations computed based on

executed trade as disclosed in the Terms & Conditions;

-- Process compliance that at the end of the settlement cycle,

`Pay-in' and `Pay-Out' are effected to the client's bank

account in accordance with client's obligations computed based

on executed trade, other service charges and penalties agreed

upon and disclosed in the Terms & Conditions; and

-- Process compliance that the brokerage is charged to the client

as disclosed in the Fee Schedule.

KPMG: Information Risk Management (IRM) practice

KPMG is a global network of professional service firms whose aim is to turn understanding of information, industries and business trends into value. KPMG member firms provide financial advisory, assurance, tax and legal, and consulting services from more than 830 cities in 159 countries.

KPMG's Information Risk Management (IRM) practice in India has been providing Enterprise Information Security related services to clients across diverse industry segments since 1996. It offers services in the areas of IT Controls Review, Business Continuity Management, Electronic Business Risk Management Services, IS Governance, and other areas covering Information Security. The Web Seal service has been designed considering KPMG's image of an independent professional advisory firm and the requirements of today's Internet-enabled businesses, where customers are concerned about various issues while transacting online. The KPMG Web Seal can address these issues by independently reviewing the management's assertions in order to provide increased customer comfort.

The KPMG Web Seal is a representation of an image or logo on a client's web site to indicate that some independent opinion is being offered on some aspects of client's operations. The KPMG Web Seal can be issued on various aspects including management's assertions, internal controls, information processing, privacy, security, web page hits or agreed upon procedures, etc.

The IRM practice also offers Internet Penetration Testing Services where the team members attempt to simulate the activities of a hacker and try to exploit vulnerabilities in the system to gain unauthorised access to an organisations' confidential information. This assists the organisation in covering all potential security weaknesses, which make it vulnerable to an intrusion attempt.

KPMG IRM assists organisations in developing and implementing enterprise-wide IT security policies to effectively meet their business objectives while ensuring a robust IT security controls framework. It aims at providing management assurance with regard to the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the information processed by the IT systems.

The KPMG IRM services have assisted various corporate multinationals to manage their IT related risks to ensure that information is available whenever it is required, in the format that it is required, and only to people with whom it should be shared, both within and outside its organisation.

ICICIdirect: A brief background

Starting its services on April 17, 2000, ICICIdirect has become India's favourite online share trading site with a customer base of over 110,000.

The unique 3-in-1 trading account of ICICIdirect offers a hassle-free and seamless trading experience for the customer. The customer's bank account, demat account and the broking account are linked automatically wherein the customer can transact without waiting to call the broker, get the order executed at a particular price, get the order confirmation details and draw/deposit cheques/TIFDs.

In December 2000, ICICIdirect launched Asia's first online mutual fund plaza. The Mutual Fund Plaza enables customers of ICICIdirect to transact online in a paperless environment in various Mutual Fund schemes through user-friendly transactions including Purchases, Redemptions, Switches and Systematic Investment Plans (SIP) and Systematic Withdrawal Plan (SWP).

Except for the historical information contained herein, statements in this release which contain words or phrases such as "will", "aim", "will likely result", "believe", "expect", "will continue", "anticipate", "estimate", "intend", "plan", "contemplate", "seek to", "future", "objective", "goal", "project", "should", "will pursue" and similar expressions or variations of such expressions may constitute "forward-looking statements". These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested by the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to ICICI Group's ability to successfully implement our online strategy, our growth and expansion, the adequacy of our allowance for credit losses, technological changes, investment income, cash flow projections, our exposure to market risks as well as other risks detailed in the reports filed by ICICI Limited (NYSE: IC) with the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States. ICICI undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date thereof.

For further press queries please contact Ms. Madhabi Puri Buch on [phone] or email to [e-mail]