Unlike its more profitable private sector rival HDFC Bank, ICICI is readytosacrifice short-term net for gaining market share, as it did in undercutting HDFC's long-standing lead in mortgage loans. (Overall, ICICI's net interest margin of 2.25% is less than half that of HDFC Bank's 4.72%.) Similarly, ICICI has overtaken Citibank as the country's largest issuer of credit cards, with 8.5 million cards issued to date.