Shyam Srinivasan Built A 5 Billion Dollar Bank The Broadview

TITLE: ₹6,000 Cr - ₹45,000 Cr: How Shyam Srinivasan Built a $5 Billion Bank | Nikunj Dalmia |The BroadView CHANNEL: The BroadView DATE: 2026-06-20 ---TRANSCRIPT--- Whom would you say was the third empire in your case? >> My wife. What is the hardest decision you’ve taken or the cheekiest single at federal bank? >> First decision to avoid credit powers to the front end. >> The hardest pitch you’ve ever batted off. >> Quarterly results after co. >> When did you think at federal bank you missed your off? >> Third quarter after joining. No ball moment for you. >> Uh Kerala floods. >> If your life was a T20, how would it change? I would try very hard to make sure that all the 20 overs I b >> in a tea break which is that one thing you always make sure is part of your pantry >> coffee which to my mind helped us coin that famous phrase which I think I take a lot of credit for digital at the four human at the core >> when you’re a banker and be the regulated entity your view on the regulator is very different right they also have challenges I didn’t realize that they >> so what is the Sign off the client. In September 2010, a banker from Standard Chartered walked to a federal bank and he was given one mandate. Make this bank grow beyond its spin code. He had no prior experience of running a bank in Kerala. But what he created was nothing short of magic. 14 years after when he walked out the market cap of federal bank zoomed from 6,000 cr to 45,000 cr. Number of branches ballooned from 650 to,500. A workforce whose average age he bought down by a decade and a digital architecture that some of the large banks are still struggling in corporate. That man is Sham Shi Navasan and he’s written a book a book called better never stops and we not talking about a bank we not talking about a strategy we are not talking about numbers this is about the climb this is about the journey this is about the grit this is about the grind and this is about how anybody should really pursue their life namaskar thank you very much for joining us on the broad view >> thank you Really this is interesting to to meet up with you in a very different envir was 2 days before I retired right we were walking the floors of federal bank so let’s see let’s have a nice very different non- numbers chat so 20 months and uh you are you don’t have any compulsions in life now no 8:00 morning calls no quarterly calls no force from RBI in terms of meeting guidelines. How has life changed for you? >> You know, I think uh yeah, it’s been first thing you would never have seen me in an interview in a t-shirt, right? >> All bankers are supposed to be wearing >> away from my suit and jacket. So, yeah, that’s I think that’s a shift in some ways away from banking. Like I said, the book that I wrote, it took a lot of my time in the last 6 8 months, but I’ve tried to keep a lot of it away from numbers. So for me that phase of trying to offer some learnings to a large community of people and not scare people through numbers and talk about real life lessons that’s how this is the but the basic question is how is life different I I have tried to make it busy differently busy but yeah I don’t have to answer a question about why this quarter’s names were missed or what the NPA escalation happened that’s for somebody else to worry uh that’s a mega difference right you moved away from the worry of the hourly miss on numbers. Yeah. >> Where are all the suits and all the ties? How many did you have with them on the last count? >> No, no, very much there. I I’m still one of those I do work very closely with the private equity with Gopal’s team. Uh there the outfit is casual, right? So I’m this odd man out still using my old jackets except that I’ve removed the ties. So that’s the big difference. I I was a collector of ties. I quite like it. So they are languishing in the cupboard. Some friends of mine have taken away a few of them. I still have a few. I’ve occasionally hoping that somebody invite me for a session where I need to be in a suit. But yeah, far from that. I’m going to put this map of India in the front. And it’s India, not Kerala, which really defines your 14 years at Federal Bank. When you walked into Federal Bank, the mandate was very simple. Make federal bank grow beyond the zip number or zip code. It was born. >> Pin code. PIN code zip is actually more like a you know a US term but pin code it was born in when you walked in the market cap was 6,000 cror when you walked out the market cap was 45,000 crores number of branches 600 that got ballooned up to about 1,500 would you define your term as federal bank for someone who gave it scale reach and perhaps size? uh in some ways yes but I think um in my mind and I want to be careful in saying this but the objective was never size as much as admission. >> Mhm. >> If you remember I’ve come on the channel those days talking to you about how we want to build the most admired bank. So if I think back uh and want to take some credit or as a team we want to look back and feel good is the fact that we started to be counted as a bank that mattered beyond a particular catchment. So how did it start? Because you inherited the bank immediately after GFC crisis. Then the world was hit by tipper tantrum. Then there was this uh dark ugly patch for the Indian banking sector when large sectors were actually crumbling down because of back lending. I want to start by take by taking the clock back to 2010. When did you decide to scale up and how did the expansion start? Um to be fair to the board at that point in time, one of the mand around the time I was coming into the bank, uh be appointed a large consultant to work on a plan for multi-year plan. Not exactly everything that consultants offer works out. But uh to be fair the thinking of the franchise then was we reasonably popular prevalent you know important there how do we in fact that’s when we coined the line not exactly that year a little later dominant in the home market and prominent in the rest of the country right and that meant you know at that time Kerala market share was about in the 8 9% market share of that stateh We had told ourselves we’re going to double this in the home market which is like nearly dominant right it helped it helped that SBT got merged back into SBI so the shift of business some of that came into federal so that helped our dominance journey and the rest of it was getting prominent rest of the markets so we sort of walked up from here to this you see the franchise here here here are now very prominent And of course this part the western part where we started becoming more prominent and I’m sure in the current era it’ll become prominent. So the thought process was from dominance in one do don’t lose your dominance in your home state where you know it’s 15 16%. The other was the segment of the market which if you remember the natural Kerala Middle East corridor is a big corridor. So that um over 40% of the remittances that come in through that corridor came through federal >> if I remember right 20% of India’s remittances India’s remittances comes through fed >> 20% >> 20% of the remittance it was 6% around the time I went >> so the thought was dominant in where you are scale that up get shared >> and become more meaningful prominent in the rest of the country and use all the core strengths of theme and NR which is the core strength of the franchise try to push that across the geographies and I think that helped because these are underserved right NR andme are perennially underserved even today with all the penetration that we’re talking ofmemes are underserved in the country so I think those helped us gain prominence in some of the geographies and I think today the bank is enjoying those benefits and hopefully in a Few years from now in the current sort of dispensation it’ll be sizewise 2x of where it is that’ll be mega. What is one thing which is unique about let’s say a customer from south how different is that for someone from north uh you know west versus east how exactly things are different for a customer for a banking customer may not be the answer you’re looking for but I’ll give you the answer the way I see it is right I’m looking for an honest answer >> yeah I’ll give you I’ll try to be and that’s what I think I am very often when you go to geographies outside the south and talk to clients, they actually like a southbased bank service mindset. >> Okay, >> they find you know I’m saying these with great care because I don’t want to offend anybody’s sensitivities but they like the client says if you are from the south and you move working in different geographies your client engagement model is le less um uh is more sensitive. So I think interestingly what people are looking for is probably what they don’t have in that catchment but that’s what they’re longing for. So I think the sensitivity the empathy that some maybe some segments of the country exhibit better than somewhere else is what clients look for. So to answer your question, differences are >> you know many could be culture, race, food preferences but I think what unites is the fact that people are looking for sensitivity and empathy >> which to my mind helped us coin that famous phrase which I think I take a lot of credit for is digital at the four >> and the human element is the sensitivity and the empathy and the um a little more where the client is heard as a person and the conversations are very post officeish a postman of the past like >> the guy walks and you’re not selling him insurance instantly you are talking about shadi in the family or some bereiement in the family or student who’s going abroad that conversation warms the client up and feels towards the end of my term we ran a campaign >> on um the kid who was 15 or 18 year old 18 19 year old boy uh walks into the dad says go and get my passport filled or something. The kid says what you’re talking about go to the mobile. Dad says no no you go to the branch and get get it filled. So the branch he walks in you know grudgingly the young boy the branch manager recognizes him as the beta of somebody else and then chats him up and this kid gets like wow this can happen in a branch. So I think the point is the nons south west whatever the unifying team was uh the human humane aspect coming in and I think that’s a unifier so my point is lot of differences but can celebrate the differences and unite through the sensitivity and empathy and I think we tried very hard and I everything I say I say with caution is not me as in the franchise right so yeah that’s what it is uh a lot has changed in last couple of years and a lot will change. For example, technology made all the difference. About two decades ago, today it is uh speed. Today it is connectivity. Today it is about experiences. So in last 10 years, what do you think has changed and in next years 10 years in the banking sector? What do you think will not change at all? I think what won’t change or I’m hoping won’t change is that the last smile uh smiled. >> Everybody’s still looking for I’ll give you a live example of this. I flew in this afternoon the hostess at the end of the flight she walked up and gave me a small postit handwritten dear Mr. Thank you for flying with me or flying us or some name she put out and she was she gave it a smile. Now we would think that is a long gone and she’s like a 25 year old young lady right she is winning my heart with a handwritten slip >> which we thought is a long gone thing who writes who writes notes who you know new age kid they don’t but they respect the fact that a client needs to be given that so the personalization that she did for me if you extend it into the banking today or 10 years out would be a winner I mean how you personalize it we thought in the year of digital who writes who writes handwritten notes but it looks like it’s a winner. >> I mean this book which I not only talk about that when I hand over to friends and people who care that autographed with a personalized note seems to mean something >> people like it. So I’m hoping that that doesn’t go away. I’m now in the old old brigade so to say but I think that will prevail. >> Who has the right to win in the banking sector? See the technology is table stakes. If you don’t have it, you’re behind the curve. But just having the highest quality of technology is never going to be the reason you’re going to win, right? So it’s a necessary but not sufficient for win. Uh the second is as all of us know in banking both capital and credit quality are intertwined and that’s like paramount. So I think technology and capital and credit quality are going to make a massive difference. The third which I sound little boring and old world is just that edge of personalization in a manner that is not artificial. See this in the guise of personalization today a lot of things have become uh templated. >> So where is federal bank headed? I mean it’s only part of the top 10 now in terms of the profit. >> But I think we should ask money >> stock has already hit an all-time high uh 5 years from now. not as an insider but as an outsider. Uh where is it headed? >> I I remember on my favor I told the team uh that time when I left I think the stock was a little over 200 right and I had mentioned to the team uh 400 should not be very far away and looks like they are tracking quite well. So I’m hoping that with the effort of the team why not look at 500 plus in in a in the term of my successes. I’m sure it’s very likely and I think they’re they’ve got a great investor who’s come in now. So I think a lot of good work but I I I think it’s unfair for me to talk about that with a listed entity. So I would but as a as a CEO perhaps you you’ve defended this question uh quite well and quite regularly. Federal bank is not up for sale. We are not going to get acquired and we are not acquiring somebody. We are doing our business. We know our business. We are good at it. Trust us. uh you know just as a part of the press team or as a member of press three months maybe sometimes in six months this used to be this constant rumor which kept on coming about federal bank no other bank attracted that kind of an attention like federal bank did why is that >> you know uh now that I’m out of the bank I can say it a little more it’s like a nice bride people like an attractive bride so we were that nothing was wrong and I very proudly say there was nothing wrong and I’m happy that 20 months since I left the bank is still looking as good or better. >> Mhm. So there was nothing wrong the bank was relatively undervalued in some sense right the stock was undervalued so it’s a very attractive >> but did you get offers which you were refusing to >> it was never like that >> I mean the normal course of business but there was never a board conversation to buy or to sell never I mean I said that on the channel many times and I if it happened behind me I don’t know right in the as a as a so-called leader of the pack I was never >> okay I’ll start with my favorite parts of the book and I’ll be shameless here I’ll call them my favorites. Well, the entire book is a great read. Uh meter resets to zero. Simple concepts, every day you start fresh. But for a banker to say that every day you start fresh, uh does that really hold true? Because banking is about processes, look at the past, look at the track record, uh can you really start with a reboot every morning? >> No, I think you see in these things there are certain degree of literal understanding and certain degree of application for you to improve yourself, right? I mean when I say meter resets to zero you could be anybody and I use examples of the taxi driver and Amitab Bachan and Shah Ruk Khan who cares right if Amitab Bajan wrote the taxi rate for you the next morning the next ride matters more and it’s true >> you’re as good as your last interaction with the client you’re as good as your last quarter we all know it right I mean I’ve sat on >> what 56 quarter end calls with you and the various channels who grill the daylights out of us saying why why and if I’ve had a grade quarter two you’re going to say hey well done what next >> so the mindset of meter resets to zero is don’t get caught up on your past success or equally on your past traumas you have an opportunity to win ahead just I talk about in another chapter called the apron wipe >> right if you go to nudi restaurant and you order food or any restaurant the guy has this remarkable memory to say nikunj wants a dosa and a vada and sham wants and something else and he orders it and he just moves on to the next order completely. He doesn’t even have to wipe off it. He just erases it and he goes to the next one. That’s zegonic effect. So I think the whole theory that I’m trying to bring out is don’t get too caught up on your immediate success or past failures or whatever those are useful. It’s instructive. Just focus on just resetting to zero every day. Then you’re going with a fresh mindset and wanting to make a difference. So I think it’s agnostic to any sector, any industry. It’s a mindset. >> Mhm. Play the pitch, not the plan. Uh you need to have a plan in life. And if you don’t have a plan, that means you’re not prepared. That’s a normal boardroom conversation. You’re not spinning it, but you’re changing it, which is that you need to have a plan, but you need to be prepared to change the plan. Give me an example of how have you done that? How does this apply in real life? if personally for you and then uh for bank I’ll tell you um I give you my one example right I was working outside India with the standard charted and I was blessed to do reasonably well they gave me the opportunity to work in run the largest franchise of the bank in 2010 uh when I thought about it and I said thank you I’m delighted you’re giving me but I want to go back to India That was my desire. >> Uh there’s a very special mention to zip which is uh zeal, intensity and passion. And uh you’ve given this great example of Indian cricket team. You’ve given this great example of look India is changing. The cricket team has changed. The entrepreneurship has changed. And is that the new India now? >> Very much very much. I think see I don’t want to minimize this thing as saying anybody will always win. Of course everybody should give it an attempt but I think the gone are only the privileged will win. The privilege of winning can move to anybody as long as you exhibit these in intense burning desire to make a difference. Put a lot of zest and zeal into it and are passionate about it. I think there is enough examples of that happening every day all around us. >> There is a lot of direct and indirect mention in the book about passion. Now passion is perhaps the most widely and most uh loosely used word. Now passion how do you figure out passion for anybody passion comes with a function of what is the reward in sight? I cannot have a passion if I don’t know what is the financial reward or what is the power which is associated with it. >> What is passion? >> Sure. >> I don’t know don’t sound philosophical but I think it’s something that uh just feel makes you feel good within. I the thing that my most favorite song and which I talked about is take your passion and make it happen in the movie called flash dance. There have been tons of such movies but this is about that young girl who goes out wants to win the local dance competition and gives it her everything. She had no research and >> she fails the first. Yeah. So that’s the story. >> She fails again. >> Fails again and again and then he pulls it off. Right. So that’s the story that I’ve been hugely imped that was in the early ’ 80s my engineering days which sort of etched in my head and I think the description of passion in all these things is just what makes you feel bright in your eyes something that makes you feel like there’s connection it’s easy to say at this stage in life saying money is not everything I’m sure at different stages in life I would not have said that but if you treat that as just one of many things that makes you feel it. That to me is passion. It’s just the feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel good about yourself. We all live in my view for self worth and self-esteem you know it’s not about the big bucks you have because it’s it’s always I have this you have much more. Nikuna has much much more right. So that’s I think it’s the feel good and the the complete excitement of accomplishing something which makes you feel hugely internally satisfied. I don’t want to sound like I’ve achieved something but I think that’s that’s the best part of the passion. It just gives you that high which is unmatched and that you have to keep pushing the button on it every day. So what we’ve done so far is we’ve perhaps built up a journey through the lens of your book which is that you don’t need to be entitled to start a journey. You need to plan rather plan be prepared and you need to have passion which is what entrepreneurship is. You identify the plan. You prepare for it. You go prepared. And then circumstances may change. You’ll have to change. And you need to have the vision and the courage to take that leap of faith. But once you’ve decided to take that leap of faith, it is about managing scale. It is about managing people. It is about managing uh uh the business and how you really you can expand it. And that’s where I think you come back and you talk about uh culture walks. You talk about strategy talks and why am I bringing this for this audience is because let’s go back to 2010 you had to manage federal bank in its original afta a deep rooted bank in Kerala which expanded you are managing a large team and that in a sense is something which is a real success of any leader managing large teams managing teams across India and managing them well and keeping them motivated. What would be the leadership mantra for someone who’s who says, “Look, I’ve got the plan. I have the passion. Maybe I’m blessed with the capital. Uh it’s a bulletproof plan but should sound like a victory parade but I tell you um the element in all uh these things is communication consistency of communication and relatively low gap between the gan givers practice and the ganivers’s gan. If you are uh if there’s consistency in Sham Shinasan or any leader saying something and his behavior and his practices are consistent with what he’s saying, I think people start believing in it. 3 years ago we were only talking about fintech and the impact of that on the BFSI sector. Today we only talking about AI. How that will change the dynamics of the BFSI sector. How will the BFSI sector change at a big picture level in three to five years from now? Then I have another follow-up question after right see to pretend that it won’t change kind of we are living in a cave. Uh but the beauty about all this Nikon is that it’s not um it’s getting very democratized whether it’s the largest bank in the country or the smallest financial institution all have access to the same technology. It’s the adoption and the speed of adoption that’s going to make a difference. So I think uh beauty of what AI is it’s increasing the dem democratization of it. and I I write about it right some parts of this punch lines that I wanted to get for and I’m not gifted with all the lines that I wanted to I relied on Germany or claude to teach me that it’s another matter my wife came and did a better job of it but I did pick up so I think the democratization of techn of many things because of availability of AI and relatively low cost is making massive difference but I will still sign back to my original line the bank of tomorrow will still rely rely on the human side of it. If you take economically well off so to say and not so well off, digitally poor and digitally rich and map India in this, you will find each cohort is so big that India cannot be served with one model. >> The digitally poor and economically well not so well off will one day migrate here or migrate here or migrate here. You need models to serve each of them. >> So will AI help? I think it’ll help the whole ecosystem but each of them will need a different model to serve. >> We will talk about 25 30 40 years for all of this to gravitate which is very unlikely. >> So I would think that the models of today have to be more micro segmented models for each of those bespoke segments which is not by pin code but by economic and digital awareness and how do you penetrate and added another layer of vernacularization. So digital economic and vernacularization is going to make the bank of BFS of BFSI of tomorrow using AI to serve these things. So I think this the population how who gets populated where will make a big difference and who sees that space and monetizes that is going to make a difference. So for someone who’s really aspiring to perhaps take an attempt at a startup in the fintech space, what to your mind are or is the white board opportunity? No, I think um the one thing that is uh easy to say but financial awareness particularly we think people are very aware even the wealthier are not as aware and as you go down the people who have disposable savable income of two to five lakhs a year kind of thing I don’t think have the finest uh uh >> so wealth management for anybody who’s earning less than 2 and a half lakh rupees >> absolutely and you’re seeing that spring up and I think it’ll be at scale and that awareness is not just okay invest in stock it’s it has to be more holistic and I think that’s going to be a big opportunity that’s coming up using technology and using cost of delivery has to be so simple and so intuitive the beauty about all this is intuitiveness is changing with more and more experience of people >> because of their exposure so what we thought was intuitive 5 years back or not intuitive five years back has become intuitive now so you have to peel that to many layers below and I think good smart kids will find that out >> uh you’ve been standing in front of the RBI firing squad for entire life now you’re part of the firing squad part of the firing squad but yeah I get a opportunity to be a adviser on one of the committees right which looking at policies and working on it it’s a very different experience right How how how different is the experience? No is see first thing when you’re a banker and be the regulated entity your view on the regulator is very different right now you’re they also have challenges I didn’t realize that they >> so what is the key button >> sign off the client wheel no but it is they have also got challenge because I think one of the things I’m seeing as regulators do they’re actually very sensitive how the regulators see them so they’ll work very hard to pull out regulation that are of as you know for this very reason the awareness is here to here the spectrum they have to find a regulation that meets both ends of the spectrum which is a massive challenge in fact one of the things we’re looking at in the committee that I work with is how do we make sure that what is most applicable here is applying here very difficult so revisiting policies and trying to make it more not just language but making it more relevant that’s a very tough So actually they also got something which I didn’t realize we were not sensitive to let’s say. >> So who I was saving this one for the last who was the Rahul Robert of the Indian banking sector. You should tell me and tell me it’s me. I I just adore his u and I’ve said this publicly many times and uh great. >> Now that’s Rahul Ravid you’re praising who is the Rahul Ravid of the Indian banking sector. Why shouldn’t I be I’d like to say why should I be more I want to be I mean I don’t know if I am but I would like to be >> many have come and gone I mean it’s not fair to pick up they’ve had their moments see I think the beauty about this slice of time you take 5 years slice 10 year slice 3ear slice you know there have been heavy hitters who’ve just literally hit it out of the park I mean we’ve seen banks that have had enormous runup and then a tragic outcome So at that point in time they would have looked like why pandy or whatever right and then they had the so I think longevity is a the arc of time makes a huge difference you know it >> right that is the beauty I mean you have to give credit to the and the puris who they are 20 or that many years and they left legacies and no ghosts that’s that’s a story >> so I want to wrap it up with uh Mr. Mr. Gavasur and uh he is living three innings a cricketer in commentator and now giving his bad or time more importantly time and attention to philanthropy what is that second or the third innings Shamshi Navasam wants to live the last chapter of the book if you’ve had a chance to read it the last paragraph is about a 10-year-old boy shadow betting >> and trying to perfect his stroke when nobody’s looking >> and that’s the story. I keep saying that maybe I have few more burning desires to make a difference. Certainly giving back, meeting younger folks, giving them a lot of my time and stuff. I’m also dabbling in some entrepreneurship, right? One wonders why, but I’m trying to set up a credit fund and trying to meet out requirements of the small and medium establishment. So there is a certain degree of business dimension but I think the more exciting dimension is give back mentoring. Uh I’m working with a young lady who is from a very prominent family working with her to make her career a bright one. So there are a few people I’m trying to reach out. Well Mr. you’ve done something which is rare. uh the grit, the ability, more importantly like you say in your book, the tenacity with which you made the impossible look uh easy I think is quite extraordinary. There were times when I’m sure in your tenure as a CEO of Federal Bank uh things were dark, things were ugly. U you never wanted to get up in the morning but yes you did. You ensured that federal bank never came under the question of any regulatory hurdles. It never came under the hammer. shareholders well they have their own art of expressing whether they happy or sad but bottom line is that when you left the bank was in a safer hand and the fact that the bank is today moving is is from strength to strength is purely because of the foundation you’ve really built thank you for this book sir thank you and I truly mean it because for me I’ve read it and I’ve planned to reread it but this totally will always be a permanent picture of at least my book here >> thank you so much so much thank you really appreciate