Mumbai. After heading HDFC Bank for 25 years, Aditya Puri on Monday handed over the responsibility of the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director of the bank to Shashidhar Jagdishan and thus after spending his last day in the bank’s corporate office, he bid farewell to everyone at 5.30 pm. Puri took over the responsibility of the first head of the private sector bank 25 years ago and took on his shoulders the banking business that employs 1.20 lakh people. Officials said that in the program of taking over, Jagdishan reached the bank headquarters located in front of Kamala Mill complex in Lower Parel area of the city. Both Puri and Jagdishan addressed their colleagues through virtual medium. In his address, Puri recalled his journey of building the bank in which the most attention was given to the employees.
Earlier in the day, HDFC Bank’s rival bank ICICI Bank publicly tweeted in Puri’s honour, calling him a source of inspiration. ICICI Bank wrote on its official Twitter handle, ICICI Bank expresses its gratitude to Aditya Puri for his contribution to the Indian banking industry. The bank said, “During your tenure of several decades, you have been an inspiration to many. We wish you a bright future.
This is how HDFC Bank became a world class bank
Aditya Puri said that when this bank was established 25 years ago, many of our colleagues were children. Many were middle class, who used to wear Bata shoes. There were many colleagues who were working in good positions in foreign companies. He said that all the colleagues had the same desire at that time that a world class bank should be established in our country too. He said, ‘I remember very well that when I was making a team for the bank in Sandoz House, I used to tell people to come and join the best bank of the world.
Aditya Puri said that there were a lot of challenges in the initial days. Due to lack of money, we opened our office in Kamla Mills. We used to return home after working during the day and when we reached the office the next morning, the computers and machines would not work because rats had chewed the cables. He said that initially our training used to take place under the trees. But thank God that we kept moving forward on the decision we took, and today we have reached here.
This is how HDFC Bank started-Aditya Puri founded the private sector HDFC Bank in India in the 90s. He had come from Malaysia after leaving a good job at Citibank. In about two decades, Puri took the bank forward and made it the bank with the lowest NPA while keeping it profitable.
Became the highest paid banker in the country-HDFC Bank MD and CEO Aditya Puri is the highest paid banker in India. Aditya Puri’s salary and other benefits increased by 38 percent to Rs 18.92 crore in the last financial year. Apart from this, according to the bank’s annual report, Aditya Puri received an additional Rs 161.56 crore on exercising share options in the last financial year.
Deepak Parekh gave me complete freedom to build HDFC Bank as a brand-Talking to CNBC-TV18, Puri said that the bank has inherited the best brand in financial services under HDFC. Puri said that I have already told Deepak that I want to work independently. I want to build an organization. So I will come only when I have got a free hand to work here. There will be no bondage of any kind. Because working free hand will be fun. If you have faith in the vision, then only you can go with the vision.
Aditya Puri further said that Deepak Parekh also joined the board, but he never interfered in our work. Puri said that HDFC Bank has built its brand with trust, security and transparency along with cutting-edge technology.
Aditya Puri said that leadership changes in any company, people also move around, but our bank already has a strong and better team. He said that even though he was the face of the brand, all decisions are taken in consultation with the team.
We have a complete plan for working here. Everybody in the team knows about that plan. We have a strong team. We take good care of our employees.
Puri said that I was the first person to say that there will be no cuts in the bonuses, promotions, and any other facilities of the employees. For this year also, I want to assure that we will not see any such cuts. And we will achieve all the targets of this year. Puri further said that his dream is that HDFC Bank becomes the largest bank in the country.
Tags: HDFC Bank Ltd
FIRST PUBLISHED : October 27, 2020, 08:34 IST