Congratulations! You must be feeling delighted,” we compliment the Federal Bank MD and CEO Shyam Srinivasan, as we meet him for lunch at the Momo Café at Courtyard by Marriott, near the Kochi airport. The private lender has just posted excellent quarterly results, reporting 53 per cent growth in its standalone net profit (₹703.7 crore compared to ₹460.3 crore the quarter, a year ago). The asset quality has improved as the non-performing assets (NPAs) fell to 2.46 per cent.

But, he shrugs it away. “For us, every day is a different taxi ride. The meter starts at zero every day,” says the Aluva-based banker.

The restaurant is wearing Rajasthani colours, as it is doing a pop-up of the desert State’s cuisine and we are tempted by the daal baati churma, missi roti and ker sangri. Srinivasan is agreeable. “Left to myself, I would have chosen some boring daal and roti,” confesses the vegetarian.

Though born in Thiruvananthapuram, and often assumed to be a Malayalee, Srinivasan says he is an out and out Chennai boy. He grew up in T.Nagar, studied in Padma Seshadri High School and then did his Product Engineering from NIT Trichy (erstwhile REC), returning to Chennai after the degree, to work at Lucas TVS. And then, he quit to become a shop sales person at Computer Point. “My parents were devastated. They could not understand their son becoming a salesman at a shop,” he recalls. “In the mid-’80s, Computer Point was India’s first computer retail sales outlet – a classy air-conditioned showroom on GN Chetty Road – but there was no denying that it was a store salesman job,” he says with a grin.

But it was a temporary job – Srinivasan joined IIM Calcutta in 1985. “Who were your batch mates – are you in touch?” you ask. “I live with one,” he says, with a mischievous grin, describing how he met his wife Maya at IIM. Other batch mates include TV Narendran, the CEO and MD of Tata Steel and Vikram Sakhuja, Group CEO, Madison.

Incidentally, Maya is the one who picked up a banking job after IIM – joining ICICI, while Srinivasan joined Wipro. “Though it was my mission to join Citibank,” he says. Within a year it happened when Ashoke Dutt, then country head for Citi, called him for an interview. “He saw that I was captain of the cricket team in college and for some time we talked about the game. I was hired,” says Srinivasan, confessing he is a big follower of the game.

At Citigroup, he spent ten years, just two-and-a-half in India, seven in Dubai and a few months in Singapore. Then Standard Chartered Bank hired him as head of the cards business in India. “I spent four years in India, then got transferred to Malaysia as Country Head and returned to India as Country Head,” he says.

In 2010, at a time when Stanchart was looking to transfer Srinivasan to HongKong, Egon Zehnder called, saying Federal Bank wanted to talk to him. “I said why? I was just 48 years old, non-Malayalee, had never worked in an Indian bank”

But in 2009, Federal Bank was getting ambitious and wanted to become a pan-India bank, and that was the brief given by the Board to Srinivasan. “I also wanted to stay in India and there was the kick of building something special. Plus, although foreign banks give you access to a certain lifestyle, Maya and my needs were limited – our lives were about making a difference,” he says.

That’s how in September 2010, the high profile banker joined the tiny Kerala-based lender which at that time had a total business of just ₹63,000 crore. Srinivasan has more than fulfilled his brief, as at end September 2022, Federal Bank’s total business was ₹3,50,000 crore, and its footprint extends all over India. It has 589 branches in Kerala and 720 branches outside the State.

By now our food has arrived and a tall, strapping Rajasthani chef, Bhik Singh, flown in from Jaipur, teaches us how to eat the dishes the correct way – he breaks the baati (a hard wheat ball), pours daal over it and serves a few chutneys on the side. He finally tops the daal baati with dollops of hot ghee, eliciting a pained yelp from Srinivasan. But the ghee is what helps digest the baati, says the unrepentant chef. The food is delicious.

Right from the start, Srinivasan says, he was clear on his objective. “I wanted us to be the most admired bank in India. Admired by customers, shareholders, employees, and investors, alike and respected for its governance.” Federal Bank, says Srinivasan, closely tracks how each of these constituents regard it. Through Net Promoter Scores (NPS), customer experience is tracked. “In the last four years, our NPS numbers have been doing very well,” he says.

As far as employees go, Federal Bank, he says, is the only bank from India which is in Asia’s Great Place to Work rankings. “This year we are also in the Great Place to Work for Women list,” he says, pointing out how 46 per cent of the employees are women.

In 2011, soon after he joined, Srinivasan also started Employees Stock Options. “Right from the sweeper, every employee has got options here. Even if he has a thousand shares, that’s comes to over ₹1.3 lakh (at current share price),” he points out.

On the institutional front, Srinivasan says, Federal Bank bats with extreme caution. “We don’t take extraordinary risks. So consequently we may not have gotten extraordinary gains but on the other hand, we are building a bank that all stakeholders at all points of time can look back and say this bank is one on which you can rely on for the long term,” he says. “Look at our net NPA and gross NPAs – apart from sKotak and HDFC, nobody has our kind of scores,” he adds.

“I am a great fan of Rahul Dravid – and Federal Bank is like him, absolutely sound, it will do nothing wrong,” he says.

The other thing that has earned him accolades is the digital transformation of the bank. Be it apps or cool internet tools, the bank has been ahead of the curve on new age digital solutions. Of late, Federal Bank has also upped its marketing in a big way, with an active social media presence, a lovely mogo (musical logo), and beautifully crafted ads.

The Onam campaign targeted at the NRI returning for the festival back home especially created a stir. NRI remittances are very big for the bank. “It is the highest for any Indian bank at 22 per cent,” says Srinivasan.

We skip desserts, and are surprised when the staff unobtrusively place some curd rice and pickle! It does round off a meal nicely!

A voracious reader, the elegantly outfitted banker also ensures he gets 45 minutes of exercise daily. Every Sunday, he pens a letter to his employees called Simply Put, the excerpts of which come on the bank’s LinkedIn page.

When he turned 60 this February, Srinivasan’s tenure at the bank was extended till September 2024, though he points out as per RBI guidelines, he can helm the bank for 15 years so till 2025, he is eligible to head it. What about successors? “By 2024, this will be a bank everybody wants to work for – and the board can find ten better than Shyam,” he says with assurance.