Aditya Puri, the banker who transformed HDFC Bank, retires

It won’t be wrong to say that banking is in Aditya Puri’s blood. Puri who has just retired as the CEO and MD of HDFC Bank, served for over 26 years, where he demonstrated his management skills and his knowledge to create a bank that grew every year and became one of the largest private sector banks in India. Being large is not enough, he made HDFC bank one of the most profitable and valuable banks by delivering good results every year even during the toughest times.

There are many great bankers that India has produced and Puri is one of them. One of the newspaper columns narrates how Aditya Puri was handpicked by Deepak Parekh when HDFC Bank was newly formed and they needed a CEO who could pilot the bank as that was the time when the Indian economy was opening up for more business opportunities with some liberal economic reforms. Puri at that point of time was enjoying his stint at Citibank, when Parekh offered him the job to lead this new bank. Looking at the magnitude of the challenge excited Puri and he took a deep dive to become the first CEO of HDFC Bank in 1994. As of June 30, 2020, the Bank had 5,326 branches and 14,996 ATMs/ Cash Deposit & Withdrawal Machines (CDMs) across 2,825 cities. It has been a front runner in the digital banking space and always believed in reinventing themselves to remain competitive with state-of-the-art banking services.

When your competitors admire you that means a lot to you. In the last few days, some of India’s best banks have saluted Puri for his outstanding contribution to the banking industry and for building HDFC Bank as a great asset to our country. Everyone has to retire when the time comes, but in the case of Puri, he retired only after ensuring that an able successor was identified and groomed to take over that coveted chair. Puri has handed over the baton to Sashidhar Jagdishan, who was recommended by him and who also closely worked with Puri.

As Puri bids adieu to the bank, HDFC Bank is a $80 billion bank, which was built and managed on low costs, high yields with very solid and clean assets.