Mumbai: Shailendra Bhandari, who joined ING Vysya Bank Ltd two months ago as managing director and chief executive officer (CEO), has his work cut out as he tries to transform a medium-sized regional bank into a national one.
Over the next three years, he plans to boost ING Vysya’s market share by growing faster than the market.
Bhandari, who was earlier head of private equity at Tata Capital Ltd, is the first CEO of Indian origin to take charge of the Netherlands-based ING Groep NV’s Indian operations. He justified ING’s decision to have an expatriate as its CEO in India initially as it needed to integrate Vysya Bank with itself.
“Now they are looking at somebody who can understand the market and drive the bank,” he told Mint in his first interview to an Indian publication. He speaks about the way forward for ING Vysya Bank. Edited excerpts:
Why did you take this offer despite having left the banking industry?
India focus: ING Vysya CEO and MD Shailendra Bhandari says in the western and northern parts of the country, the bank realized what appealed more to aspirational customers was the ING brand. Hemant Mishra / Mint
After we completed the merger of Centurion Bank of Punjab Ltd with HDFC Bank Ltd, my personal inclination was not to do banking. I was very happy when Tata group asked me to set up the private equity business for them. It is a realization which happens over time; you get so used to the pleasure and pain of running a huge organization.
Banking is an everyday business—there is immediate reward and immediate pain. You get addicted to it. I realized it only after I was away from it for two years. When I was approached by ING, I thought it would be a great opportunity as I was aware of the potential of the franchise.
There is a perception that ING has not been able to use Vysya Bank’s strengths on account of a lack of focus.
I think you’re right. Given that ING came in 2002, it has been seven years (and) in hindsight we could have done better. I won’t say it’s a lack of focus. It took a lot of time for ING to understand what was the old Vysya Bank franchise, and to get it up to ING’s vision. (The) reality of ING Vysya Bank is that we have almost 480 branches and we are a national bank but we have some unique flavours.
We are one of the largest private sector banks in the south. In two states—Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka—we are the largest private sector bank. In Andhra Pradesh, we have 25-30% market share in terms of branches within the private sector.
Initially, there was not enough focus on how do you take what is primarily a south-based bank to a national bank.