Private sector lender Bandhan Bank will be the latest to join the credit card market and the roll out is expected around April-May this year.
The bank has hired former Bank of Baroda (BoB) executive Piush Jha to head the credit card unit.
Jha, who was with BoB Financial Solutions Ltd till recently, is among the many senior bankers who joined the Kolkata-based lender in the last few months.
Bandhan Bank, one of the last lenders to receive universal banking licence, will enter 10 years of operation this year. The lender started business in August 2015.
One of the key appointments was Rajinder Kumar Babbar, who has joined as executive director & chief business officer.
Babbar, who has 35 years of experience, will oversee all business verticals, including digital banking and treasury portfolio. In his last role, he was group head — transportation, infrastructure and tractor finance group at HDFC Bank.
Another important appointment was of Rajiv Mantri, who joined as chief financial officer (CFO). Mantri will oversee the bank’s financial operations and efficient resource allocation.
Mantri comes with over 25 years of experience in banking and finance. He worked in India, Singapore and UAE, with multinational banks like Standard Chartered and Citi.
Jha will have to operate in a market dominated by a few banks. Four lenders, HDFC Bank, SBI Card, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank issued 70 per cent of the credit cards in India.
The total number of cards as of January 2024 was 99.5 million, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data shows. HDFC Bank is the leader in this market with around 20 per cent share.
The credit card team at Bandhan will also see former bankers from Citi and YES Bank, among others, coming on board.
Bandhan will tie up with card networks like Visa, Mastercard and homegrown Rupay of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
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“We will have paperless on-boarding of credit card customers,” said a source, adding the initial focus will be its existing customers.
The credit card portfolio will also be leveraged to strengthen the liabilities franchise, apart from cross selling other products.
Another key appointment is Santosh Nair, who joined the bank as head of consumer lending and mortgages.
Nair, who has expertise in sales and distribution, profit and loss management and operations, was the CEO of HDFC Sales – an arm of the erstwhile HDFC Ltd. HDFC Sales is now a subsidiary of HDFC Bank post the merger with HDFC.
Bandhan has also hired for other leadership roles — Pinaki Haldar (who was with Axis Bank earlier) is the chief information officer.
Rajesh Kumar Srivastava, who was with Suryoday Small Finance Bank, will be heading the control unit and Radhika Raghavan will head customer experience. Raghavan was with Barclays Shared Services.
Strengthening the core
Name | Designation | Previously with |
Rajinder Kumar Babbar | Executive Director & Chief Business Officer | HDFC Bank |
Rajiv Mantri | Chief Financial Officer | Citi |
Piush Jha | Head, Credit Cards | BOB Financial Solutions |
Pinaki Haldar | Chief Information Officer | Axis Bank |
Santosh Nair | Head of Consumer Lending and Mortgages | HDFC Sales |
Rajesh Kumar Srivastava | Head, Bank control unit | Suryoday SFB |
Radhika Raghavan | Head, Customer experience | Barclays Shared Services |
First Published: Mar 17 2024 | 6:11 PM IST