Piramal Enterprises appoints Jairam Sridharan as CEO of its Consumer Finance Business

Jairam comes with over two decades of deep expertise in domestic and international retail finance. Previously, as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Axis, Jairam raised over $1.8 Bn, the largest private equity infusion in banking at the time, and led the finance, strategy, M&A and investor relations functions.

Before that, he was President, retail lending & payments at Axis Bank, where he led the transformation of Axis into a retail bank growing the book 6 times in 5 years.

Commenting on the appointment Anand Piramal, Executive Director, Piramal Group said, “We are delighted to welcome Jairam Sridharan. Jairam not only has rich experience in building a large retail finance business but also has deep knowledge of technology and analytics, a combination that positions us well as we build a business of the future.”

Consumer and small business financing is one of India’s most exciting growth opportunities. Current penetration in consumer finance in India is a third of China, and a fifth of that in the US. In addition, only 5 out of 80 million MSMEs have access to formal credit.

Rapid internet penetration and progressive government reforms such as IndiaStack and GST have made India a data rich and digitally driven country.

“Our hope is to create a world class new age AI-led lending business that helps fuels the growth of small businesses and fulfils the aspiration of Indian consumers. We believe greatly in India’s financial services story, both on the wholesale and retail side, and this foray helps us build a more innovative, diversified and complete financial services conglomerate.” said Anand Piramal.