M D Mallya BS Banker of the Year

He was chosen by a four-member Jury, headed by former Sebi chief M Damodaran

M D Mallya, who retired from Bank of Baroda (BoB) as chairman in November last year, is the Business Standard Banker of the Year 2011-12. He was chosen by a four-member jury, headed by former Sebi chairman M Damodaran.

The other jury members were Edelweiss Group Chairman & CEO Rashesh Shah, AIG India Chief Executive Sunil Mehta and Anil Singhvi, IIAS founder director and Ican Investment Advisors chairman.

The jury had initially shortlisted four bankers from a list of 23 on parameters ranging from return on equity and business per employee to quality of assets and growth in deposits and advances. After two hours of discussions, they finally zeroed in on the spectacular performance of BoB under Mallya.

For most lenders, the year was marked by slowing business growth but not for BoB. In FY12, the bank’s business grew 26 per cent, while its profit grew 18 per cent. While the bank saw asset quality pressure (gross non-performing assets increased to 1.53 per cent of the total from 1.36 per cent the previous year), the ratio was much lower compared to its peers. The capital adequacy ratio was maintained at 14.67 per cent.

During Mallya’s four-and-a-half-year term, the bank’s business expanded 2.6 times — from Rs 2.58 lakh crore to Rs 6.72 lakh crore. He developed a strong retail franchise, as a result of which the customer base increased from 35 million to 48 million.

But it wasn’t the numbers alone. In an interview with Business Standard, the details of which have been published in the Banking Annual, being distributed free with today’s edition, Mallya said he had always focused on the quality of business, rather than quantity. The jury seemed to agree. What impressed them the most was his performance on other parameters like leadership and transformation. During his chairmanship, he tackled every aspect of the bank’s operations — from re-organising the backend operations and modernising branches to training staff and upping the levels of customer service. During his tenure, the bank saw employee productivity going up dramatically through re-engineering initiatives such as ‘Udaan’.

Also, the back-office functions were taken out of branches and transferred to central processing units, so that the branch staff could devote more time in attending to customers and ensure marketing. “Our strategy of getting more share of the customer’s wallet has succeeded to a large extent,” Mallya said.