A casual snapshot of the world’s leading financial institutions, post the global economic downturn, shows that there are quite a few Indians at the top. In the region banks as varied as Standard Chartered, Citibank, First Gulf Bank, Emirates NBD, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Sarasin Alpen and Deutsche Bank among others have top-ranking executives of Indian origin.
Last year recruiting firm Global Hunt said that there was a 25 per cent increase in demand for banking professionals from India, owing to their exposure to the full life cycle of Indian banking.
When India-born Anshu Jain took over the reins of Deutsche Bank from CEO Josef Ackermann in June, Jain became the head of the world’s largest bank by assets ($2.8 trillion or Dh10.28 trillion, according to Bankers Almanac World). His compatriot Ashok Aram, who is Deutsche Bank CEO for Middle East and Africa, may most likely join the leadership of the powerful financial institution in the near future.
HSBC, number one in the global brand ranking, also relies on the Indian difference in banking. Its top executive from the subcontinent is Rakesh Bhatia, who is the global head of trade and receivables finance. Bhatia joined the organisation in 1987, with his recent assignment being the CEO of HSBC Indonesia. He now works in Hong Kong.
Work ethics
Many of the Indian bankers in the UAE were involved in navigating financial institutions through the economic crisis in 2008. And most of them did it well, placing them regularly on the Indian Power List of the GCC’s 100 most influential business figures.
“Making the right decision based on merits of the action and not the personal rewards to be enjoyed is a strong philosophical belief that is uniquely Indian and underpins my style of working,” Surya Subramanian, Chief Financial Officer, Emirates NBD, in the UAE, tells GN Focus. “Ethics is part and parcel of this mantra as rewards have never been the driver of decisions.”
This discipline, quite far from the throw-caution-to-the-winds approach, which some say caused the world economic downturn, has been in focus post the global economic downturn. It is not a big leap to think that Indian finance professionals are rooted in the tradition of caution displayed by its institutions. Indian banks have been relatively stable, even as financial institutions in the US and Europe went bankrupt. The tightly regulated Indian banks, once criticised for being overregulated, were, in fact, on the right track.
Indian banks also seem to have weathered the financial crisis better than their global peers because they were much better capitalised. In 2008, India’s high foreign exchange reserves prevented any panic even after foreign institutional investors withdrew $12 billion from the stock market and foreign credit suddenly vanished. However, investors soon returned to the Indian market in 2009 because of India’s resilience and low indebtedness.
Once the worst was over and other world banks tightened their monetary policy, Indian banks were lending, doing their bit to drive GDP growth and employment.
While global rankings a few years ago would not even look at Indian banks, the situation today has changed considerably. Banking 500 2012, the annual ranking of Brand Finance, a global brand valuation consultancy, now shows not less than 22 Indian banks among the world’s best. The highest-rated Indian bank brand, the State Bank of India, ranks 39th, while the second-placed ICICI sits at 102nd.
Indian banks are still represented only by a small fraction of their market capitalisation, but the trend shows upwards movement. The Indian Overseas Bank, which has the highest brand value/market capitalisation ratio among the Indian banks on the 2012 list, has a brand worth of 16 per cent of its market capitalisation, and is comparable to the 22 per cent for HSBC.
Restructuring and stabilising Citibank from the impact of the 2008 financial crisis immediately after he joined the bank was an Indian banker too. Known as the quiet man on Wall Street, Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citibank since 2007, studied in Mumbai and then at Columbia University, US, before joining Morgan Stanley and later Citigroup. A thoughtful, soft-spoken individual who rarely gives interviews, Pandit is seen as the antithesis to many blustering US bankers such as Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, or Bank of America’s head Brian Moynihan.
Staying up to date
Another Indian banker in the UAE, Ajay Kapoor, Area Director Middle East, NRI Business, Citibank, says: “Hard work, focus, updated market and product knowledge, patience and adaptability are the secret of my success and probably that of other Indian bankers. It is also critical to be grounded, especially in the current environment.”
When Indian bankers combine solid knowledge with formidable people skills, there seems to be no stopping them. R. Seetharaman, Group Chief Executive Officer, Doha Bank, with nearly three decades of experience in banking, information technology and consultancy, says in an email interview with GN Focus, “I believe in the philosophy of knowledge management. This has been critical for the sustainable development of Doha Bank. The purpose is to help an organisation as a whole meet its business objectives and not do it for its own sake. Fundamentally, knowledge management is about being more open in your way of work and relationships with other people. The higher up the organisation the more effective you will be in changing the culture. But even if you are lower down the hierarchy, you will have an influence.”
The discipline in financial matters, combined with the community-centric approach, is another mantra of success. As Seetharaman puts it, “I believe providing a good work environment is part of corporate social responsibility. Each one of us and the institutions in which we work should have the vision and mission to be socially responsible entities.”
