Bandhan Bank to launch credit card in Apr-May; Piush Jha to head the unit

Strengthens top management with ex HDFC, Citi, Axis bankers

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).

“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.

Recent senior appointments at Bandhan Bank
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