IDBI Banks Gunit Chadha honoured

Mumbai: IDBI Bank managing director and CEO Gunit Chadha has been declared 'The Finance Professional of the Year' in Banking Annual 2002, released by Business Standard on 13 February. A panel of eminent bankers, and the Business Standard editorial board evaluated the nominations for the award.

The award is a categorical acknowledgment of the fact that in a short period of 15 months, since he assumed charge, Chadha has put all the building blocks in place and created a launching pad for IDBI Bank. He has built up a globally-skilled, top-quality management team that can now take the bank many steps ahead.

Despite an environment reeling from an economic slowdown, Chadha consciously adopted an expansionary strategy. Today, the bank has doubled its network and footprint across the country, covering 55 cities with 75 branches and over 210 ATMs. Manpower has also grown from a modest 550 to over 1,200 in the same period.

The bank has also fully executed its new, state-of-the-art, online, real-time technology platform across the entire network. Customer numbers have also kept pace. IDBI Bank has clocked over 500,000 customers now, as against 210,000 in the same period last year.

But despite an aggressive growth strategy, the bank never lost sight of asset quality. During the same period, a massive clean-up drive was launched and non-performing assets were pruned ruthlessly. IDBI Bank is also probably the first bank in India to adopt the 90 days overdue norm for classification and provisioning of NPAs, where most banks follow the 2-quarter norm.

Consequently, 83 per cent of the assets are rated 'A' or better (on Crisil model adopted for IDBI Bank) as on 31 December 2001. The ratio of net NPAs to net customer assets is down to 2.03 per cent from 3.4 per cent in December 2000. And the provision cover against NPAs (including write-offs) doubled to 54 per cent as against 26 per cent as on 31 December 2000.

Despite such significant investments in people, technology, branch and ATM expansion and provisioning, the bank's profitability has grown by over 350 per cent in the current financial year over the same period last year.

Chadha, 40, an alumnus of IIM-Ahmedabad and the Wharton School, USA, joined IDBI Bank in August 2000 after a 17-year stint with the Citigroup, covering senior-level profit-centre responsibilities in India and New York.

IDBI Bank is India's youngest and one of the fastest-growing new private sector banks. Over the last one year it has launched a blitzkrieg of initiatives that are refreshingly different and are aimed at providing superior service and value for money to the Indian consumer. The bank is surging ahead from strength to strength and is fast transforming into a technology-led, service-driven, financial services marketing company, managed with intellectual integrity.