Mumbai: Global financial services firm JPMorgan Chase and Co. on Thursday announced the appointment of Kalpana Morparia as chief executive officer of its Indian operations. Morparia moves from ICICI Bank Ltd, India’s second largest bank, where she spent 33 years.
New role:Kalpana Morparia will help accelerate the process of building the Indian franchise, a JPMorgan statement said. Photograph: Santosh Verma/Bloomberg
Morparia, chief strategy and communications officer and vice-chairperson for insurance, securities and asset management at ICICI Bank, will be a member of JPMorgan’s Asia-Pacific executive committee. She will be involved in the development of global initiatives being led out of the firm’s New York office.
Morparia offers JPMorgan “a tremendous opportunity to accelerate the progress we’ve made in building our Indian franchise,” Gaby Abdelnour, Asia-Pacific chairman and chief executive at JPMorgan, said in a statement. Her appointment reflects the importance which JPMorgan “places on India as a priority within the firm’s global growth strategy.”
Dominic Price, managing director and senior country officer for India and Sri Lanka at JPMorgan, is expected to take a larger role within the firm. This could not be confirmed.
Morparia joined the erstwhile ICICI Ltd in 1975 and was elevated to its board of directors in 2001. She retired from the board of directors of ICICI Bank Ltd in 2007 as its joint managing director.
She was to head the ICICI Bank’s proposed holding company for the insurance and mutual fund businesses, ICICI Financial Services. However, this venture did not take off, as the holding company concept for these businesses did not find favour with the banking regulator.
“Since 2007, she has focused on guiding the group’s insurance, asset management and securities businesses in their growth and evolution. She is leaving the ICICI Group to pursue other opportunities,’’ said an ICICI Bank statement.
Morparia was not available to comment. In the JPMorgan statement, she said she welcomed the opportunity to lead the firm’s expansion in India.
“JPMorgan has established a strong and highly respected franchise in India which will support plans to expand all three lines of business—investment banking, asset wealth management and treasury and securities services,” she said.