The Journey from village to one of India’s leading banks

• Bandhan Bank Ltd. is a banking and financial services company, headquartered in Kolkata. Bandhan Bank is present in 35 out of 36 states and union territories of India, with 6,297 banking outlets and 3.36 crore customers.
• Having received the universal banking licence from the Reserve Bank of India, Bandhan Bank started operations on August 23, 2015, with 501 branches, 50 ATMs and 2,022 Banking Units (BUs).
• The Bank has mobilised deposits of ₹1,35,202 crore and its total advances stand at ₹1,24,721 crore as of March 31, 2024.
• Bandhan was set up in 2001 as a not-for-profit entity with the objective of financial inclusion and women empowerment through sustainable livelihood creation. It started its microfinance operations from Bagnan, a small village, about 60 km from Kolkata.
• The model followed for delivery of microfinance services was individual lending through group formation.

Bandhan’s wonderful move

• The current MD & CEO and founder Chandra Shekhar Ghosh has decided to retire, although the board had sent his nomination to the Reserve Bank of India earlier for an additional
• Ratan Kumar Kesh faced two choices when the offer to join Kolkata-based Bandhan Bank as Executive Director & Chief Operating Officer came his way.
• At the time, he was doing well at the Mumbai-headquartered Axis Bank, where he joined in 2019 as part of new MD & CEO Amitabh Chaudhry's team to drive bank-wide operational transformation across all business lines.
• In the last few years, the transformation had placed Axis Bank on a strong footing, and Kesh’s work was highly valued by Chaudhry.
• Kesh joined Bandhan Bank as ED in March 2023 and is also serving as the chief operating officer of the bank. He has previously worked with ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Yes Bank and Axis Bank.
• In April, Bandhan Bank founder Ghosh declared that he will retire at the end of his third tenure on July 9, 2024. He would, however, continue to have a ‘larger strategic’ role at the group level.

Editor’s Note

• The board of private sector lender Bandhan Bank on Saturday approved the appointment of Ratan Kumar Kesh as interim MD and CEO of the bank with effect from July 10. The present MD and CEO, Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, is set to retire on July 9.
• Pummeled by the pandemic, Raymond Ltd went through one of the toughest times in 98 years.
• From there, Singhania doggedly engineered Raymond’s recovery, taking the scimitar to costs, excess inventory and non-performing stores.
• In FY23, net profits doubled and revenues notched up its highest-ever value of INR 8337 crore, making it a freshly minted billion-dollar organisation.
• The Raymond Group board reappointed Gautam Singhania as Managing Director for five years effective July 1 subjected to retirement by rotation.

EDITOR’NOTE

• Gautam Singhania decided ‘quitting was never an option’ He looked challenges right into their faces, shrugged them off and focused on the revival every single day. With Raymond Ltd clocking in numbers from all quarters, we clearly see the story is far from over.

KEYWORDS

• #gautamsinghania #raymondgroup #vijaypatsinghania