CNBC-TV18's Latha Venkatesh caught up with Shikha Sharma, MD & CEO of Axis Bank and asked her what she makes of the board's decision to extend her tenure.
Sharma said that she wants to thank the board for giving her another four years.
Speaking about business, she said Enam was a small acquisition that expanded our corporate financial reach. FreeCharge too can dramatically change our digital offering.
On monetary policy front, she said lower rates help but liquidity helps even more.
Below is the verbatim transcript of Shikha Sharma's interview:
Q: What would you make of the extended opportunity going ahead?
A: I am excited. I am grateful to the board for having given me this extended opportunity. I think we are living right now in one of the most exciting times for India, for the Indian financial system with the amount of stuff that is changing. So you have to exercise every bit of your IQ, EQ. So it is absolutely fantastic and I feel very honoured to have this opportunity.
I am lucky to have the team that I work with. It is a pleasure to go into office everyday and together we hope that we will make the very most of this period to 2021.
Q: Your thoughts on what is the next four years, what are the milestones you have set yourself. You have bought FreeCharge; we are on the crest of digitisation. So any thoughts on how Axis might look four years from now?
A: We will come back and talk to you about the strategies going forward more fully but just one thought I want to leave with you - in my last tenure in 2010, we acquired Enam. It was a small acquisition from a perspective of dilution to existing shareholders but it was very material because it made a big difference to our capability on the corporate investment banking franchise and we are delighted that we have been able to leverage that, integrate that and create a powerful proposition to corporate customers.
I see FreeCharge very much like that. It is not a big bet financially but it is a very big bet strategically because the world and changing and digital is such a different space and such an important space that the ability to work with and leverage a high powered competent team to do magic in the digital space - that is what we would hope to do.
Q: Leave me with one thought on the monetary policy. The expectation is, at least our poll has thrown up that an overwhelming number of people are expecting a cut. What difference will it make to banks?
A: We have said that again and again but I repeat that one more time that more than the rate cut; it is liquidity dynamics of the market which makes a difference to what happens to interest rates.
Q: That is plentiful?
A: Exactly. So the liquidity dynamics has been good but on top of that a rate cut would only create a longer term expectation that maybe this liquidity is going to stay and therefore, India is going to be in a softer interest rate environment and more focused on growth. I think that could a potential cherry on the top.
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