Kotak Mahindra Bank never differentiates me for my gender: Shanti Ekambaram

Ekambaram also pointed out that when Kotak Mahindra Bank was emerging, she never thought that she was different and could not deliver.

In an exclusive conversation with Moneycontrol on September 11 Shanti Ekambaram, whole-time director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, said that the bank has never treated her differently just because she is a woman.

"I never think to myself that I'm a woman and I can't do something. In any workplace, especially if you want to do really well, you forget that you are from a different gender. You have to focus on competence and have to deliver what takes you up for the job," said Ekambaram while replying to a question about challenges she faced as a woman banker.

Ekambaram also pointed out that when Kotak Mahindra Bank was emerging, she never thought that she was different and could not deliver.

"To juggle the roles that women play, many of them give up. So it's not just an industry dominated by men. It is also about women wanting to succeed, move up," she said.

Women's participation in the banking sector

Women made up only 10 percent of the banking workforce up until the 1990s. Only the clerical grade had a higher percentage of women, at 22 percent in 2005-06. Since then, it has gone up to 27 percent in 2015-16 and 31.7 percent in 2020–21 for clerical, according to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data. Despite a rising trend in women's employment in the Indian banking industry, just 3,97,005 of the 16,42,804 total employees in 2021-22 in all scheduled commercial banks are female, or 24.17 percent of the workforce.

Private sector banks have approximately 1,34,000 female officers out of 6,14,000 employees in that grade, which makes 21.96 percent. Public sector banks have approximately 1,00,000 female officers out of 3,88,000, or 26.34 percent female presence at the officer level.

Women's numbers for credits improves

On the other side of the counter, an increasing number of women are taking advantage of credit to achieve their goals in life, and this is reflected in the latest Centre for Research in International Finance report published on International Women’s Day in March 2023, which reveals that portfolios outstanding across major retail loans availed by women have risen by 25 percent to Rs 26 lakh crore as of December 2022 from Rs 20.7 lakh crore as of December 2021. CIRF is a body that has several public sector banks, development finance institutions, non-banking financial companies and the like as stakeholders.

The share of female borrowers in overall retail loans (by value) increased from 25.3 percent as of December 2021 to 26 percent as of December 2022. The share of younger female borrowers (less than or of 35 years of age) has continued to increase over the last three calendar years, from 38.3 percent in CY20 to 43.4 percent in CY22.