'Thank you, Aditya Puri, for 25 glorious years': HDFC pays grand tribute to outgoing boss

India's largest private sector lender HDCF bank has paid tribute to its outgoing Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Aditya Puri. Aditya Puri played the central role in making HDFC bank the largest private sector lender in India

India's largest private sector lender HDCF bank has paid tribute to its outgoing Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Aditya Puri. The bank expressed it tribute to Puri by putting up a giant wall hanging outside it's headquarter building in Worli, Mumbai.

The big hanging read, "Thank You, Mr. Aditya Puri, for 25 glorious years." Aditya Puri will finally bid farewell to the country's biggest private bank on 26^th October after sitting at the helm for over 25 years. Puri has been credited for transforming HDFC bank into the largest private bank. HDFC Bank manages total assets of over one trillion U.S. dollars as of June 2020. It has over five thousand branches in more than two thousand Indian cities.

Big preparation for the farewell

The bank's more than 1 lakh workers will be gathering virtually to bid farewell to the outgoing CEO. The farewell means Sashidhar Jagdishan on October 27 would take over as the CEO of HDFC Bank. Jagdishan, currently serving as Additional Director and Head of Finance and HR at the bank, was among HDFC (Bank)'s top two internal candidates for the top position.

How Puri made HDFC India's largest private sector bank?

As the Indian economy opened up in the early 90s, many private entities were given licenses to run banks and HDFC bank got one. Puri who was the CEO at Citi Bank Malaysia came back to India and started working in the bank.

In its first decade, it was touted a very boring bank and did not serve up "surprises" driven by Puri's personality - a no-nonsense, conservative banker. This was also reflected in the way the bank rolled out its retail banking products. In the mid-1990s when several of his peers chased market share, he refused to play the game. The bank first bought secured product lines into the market; credit cards were introduced only in 2000.

Bank's credit card was an instant hit and its digital march took out almost all the players in the financial sector. Its foray into digital business in 1999 with Net Banking, SMS banking came a year later and then "mobile site", and later an app. The bank further integrated its services with iOS, Android and Windows. Steadily, the bank became the most preferred lender for the salaried class.