Mumbai, Sep 23: South Indian Bank has appointed cards and payments veteran Ananth Babu as Senior General Manager and Head of Credit Cards as the private sector lender prepares to re-enter the credit-card business through a proprietary model.
The leadership search and appointment were facilitated by Venator Search Partners, a leading retained executive search firm specialising in leadership hiring in the BFSI sector. Babu will report to Dolphy Jose, Executive Director and Whole-time Director at South Indian Bank.
Babu brings more than two decades of experience across credit cards, payments, retail lending and digital lending. He joins South Indian Bank from CSB Bank, where he spent four years as Senior Executive Vice President and headed Cards, Payments and Contact Centre.
Before joining CSB Bank, he spent 16 years at Axis Bank in leadership positions including Head of Card Products and Head of Sales for Credit Cards. Earlier in his career, he worked with HDFC Bank, Max New York Life, GE SBI Cards and American Express Bank.
During his tenure at Axis Bank, Babu helped drive credit-card acquisition at a compound annual growth rate of 33 percent and supported an increase in the bank’s market share from 9 percent to 12 percent. Digital channels came to account for nearly 60 percent of new-card acquisitions during the period.
He also led the launch of a proprietary range of wearable payment devices and was involved in introducing the Axis Kochi One mobile application, which combined transit and digital-payment capabilities.
Commenting on the appointment, Deepraditya Datta, Founder of Venator Search Partners, said,
“Building a credit-card business requires a leader who understands the complete operating cycle, from product design and customer acquisition to payments, risk, servicing and digital distribution. Ananth has worked across each of these areas and has experience scaling both traditional and digital channels.”
“His track record in increasing card acquisition, expanding market share and developing new payment products makes him well suited to lead South Indian Bank’s return to the segment. The mandate required a leader who could build the business with a focused proposition rather than simply replicate an existing cards model,” Datta added.
The appointment comes as South Indian Bank looks to build a differentiated credit-card proposition and scale the business through a focused approach. Developing a proprietary card business will allow the bank to exercise greater control over product design, customer experience, underwriting, rewards, distribution and commercial performance.
Over the years, Venator Search Partners has facilitated more than 60 CXO-level appointments across Universal Banks, Small Finance Banks, NBFCs, Housing Finance Companies and other financial institutions in India.
A former national-level badminton player, Babu holds a postgraduate management qualification from Xavier Institute of Management, Mumbai.