Banking Central | Where have all the woman CEOs in Indian financial services gone?

To ensure that women aren't denied opportunities, there needs to be effective, comprehensive board-level policies.

Over the weekend, Aditya Birla Capital announced the appointment Vishaka Mulye as the new chief executive officer of the company. For the firm, this is a landmark event. Mulye will be the first woman CEO of Aditya Birla Capital and is a high-profile name in the Indian banking industry. She has acted as one of the pillars of ICICI Group over the years.

Mulye is the latest senior banker from the ICICI Group rising to become the CEO of a major financial services institution. The group has produced iconic names like V Vaidyanathan, Rajiv Sabharwal, Sunjoy Chatterjee, Chanda Kochhar, Shikha Sharma, Kalpana Morparia and Madhabi Puri Buch.

Mulye has experience both in finances and administration. She is known as a good mentor and people manager among colleagues. During her years in the group, Mulye played an instrumental role in building the organisation particularly during the merger of ICICI and ICICI Bank in 2002.

Also, it is worth mentioning that Mulye led the team, which negotiated and concluded the merger of erstwhile Sangli Bank with ICICI Bank. From 2002 to 2005, she was responsible for the bank's structured finance and global markets businesses, and its financial institutions’ relationships.

In 2005, Mulye took over as the Group's Chief Financial Officer.

Now, let's look beyond this appointment. Over the years, in the broader banking sector, more women have risen through the ranks to lead major financial service companies in India.

Among the women achievers in Indian banking, Arundhati Bhattacharya (first woman chief of SBI), Shikha Sharma, Chanda Kochhar, Kalpana Morparia headed large banks, while Madhabi Puri headed ICICI Securities between 2009 and 2011 and later in March 2022, became the first women chief of India’s market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India.

That's not all. There are names like Padmaja Reddy, founder and former chief of Spandana Sphoorty who built an iconic organisation in microfinance leading it through one of the worst phases in the history of Indian microlending during 2010-2012 Andhra Pradesh microfinance crisis.

Other names include Usha Ananthasubramanian, former chief of Allahabad Bank and Padmaja Chunduru, MD and CEO of National Securities Depositories and former head of Indian Bank.

That said, there are no serving women bank CEOs at this point in large Indian banks except Zarin Daruwala of Standard Chartered Bank.

That begs the question - why are there so few woman CEOs?

Even though no one will admit in the public, the Indian banking industry remains a male dominated field.

It is tough for women from middle-class families to cut through the competition and break the glass ceiling. Those who managed to do that so far had years of hard work and challenges in their path to the top. Some succeeded, while many dropped halfway.

I remember one former woman banker telling me a while ago about the struggles she faced throughout her career both within the organisation and in the family during her career path. Managing home and a high-pressure role were not easy for her.  The struggle turned even harder as she rose through the ranks and the organisation turned more complex to manage.

There have been efforts to give opportunities to women. In 2013, the then UPA government-launched the Bhartiya Mahila Bank (BMB) with an idea to empower women in banking. It was designed to fully run by women for women. But, four years later, the bank was merged with State Bank of India. The idea didn’t really take off.

But, one thing is proven beyond doubt. Even in an industry that is as competitive as banking, women are not behind men in terms of merit and leadership ability. That’s evident from the number of women leaders in banking have increased over years.

To ensure that women aren’t denied opportunities, there needs to be effective, comprehensive board level polices. A clear framework to ensure there is no gender-based discrimination in banking. Let there be more women leaders in Indian banking.

(Banking Central is a weekly column that keeps a close watch and connects the dots about the sector's most important events for readers.)