HDFC merger gives bank a runway to double every four years: CEO Jagdishan - Economic Times

HDFC Bank could create a new bank its size every four years after taking over its parent, given the combined entity's large and growing distribution and customer franchise, more than adequate capital, healthy asset quality and profitability, CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan said in a communication to employees post the merger.

With the addition of home loans in its products HDFC Bank has a large runway for growth for a long time to come, Jagdishan said.

"The penetration levels of the home loan product in its customer base and the extent the distribution has been leveraged, is quite low. This is an opportunity. The runway for growth is going to be large and for a long time to come," he said.
Saturday was the first day that the merger was effective, after boards HDFC and the bank approved merger after all regulatory approvals. As a result of the merger, HDFC Bank will now be the fourth most valuable bank in the world. It will only be the second largest bank in India by far with a loan book of more than Rs 22 lakh crore.

Jagdishan said the decision for the merger was spurred by the right timing, both, from an ‘economics’ and a regulatory perspective.

He said that the bank will be adding more than 1500 branches every year for some years to reach out to the burgeoning middle and upper segment. "The vision that we have laid out for ourselves in reimagining our technology architecture will make us a ‘technology company’ which is into banking," he said adding that he expects it to be unveiled over the next three years.He expects the bank's digital platform to upsell to incoming home loan customer a bundle of other products like a savings account, a personal loan, a consumer durable loan, life insurance or even a mutual fund with a single click. "This is going to be a paradigm change of how we will be doing our businesses in the future - moving from sales management to relationship management. The velocity of product sales and the reduced touch points to serve the customer will be a game changer with this “power of bundling," he said.Jagdishan also addressed the more than 4000 employees of HDFC which will join the bank. He said that while the jobs and pay of the newly joined employees will be protected, to ensure there is fairness in tagging the right destination roles and levels in the bank, an independent external expert has been engaged to arrive at a formulae.

"A committee of seniors from HDFC Ltd and the bank reviewed the expert’s work and did a management overlay wherever corrections were needed. In any such exercise there will always be the apprehension, leading you to wonder if you have been fairly treated. Whilst we believe so, you may think otherwise. We shall set up a grievance committee to hear the concerns of anyone who wishes to air their woes. We commit that once you settle into your roles, the committee will examine any further corrections to levels," Jagdishan said in an effort to allay concerns of former HDFC employees.

Jagdishan has earmarked governance and compliance, working environment and customer service as the three most important priorities for each employee of the bank.

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HDFC merger gives bank a runway to double every four years: CEO Jagdishan - Economic Times
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