Banking wasn’t his first career choice. But N Vaghul, who passed away last week - he was 88 - redefined the industry he joined after his plans to appear for civil service exams hit a roadblock.
Survived by his wife, son and daughter, Vaghul breathed his last in Apollo hospital in Chennai, where he was admitted after a fall. Vaghul’s most storied achievement, one which ensured his place in Indian banking history, was building the ICICI brand in finance. ICICI is today India’s second biggest bank by mcap, after HDFC.
His five-decade-plus stint in the Indian financial sector, which started when he cleared an exam for SBI probationary officer in 1957, was dotted with many accomplishments. A recipient of the Padma Bhushan in 2009, he was the youngest bank chairman, leading Bank of India at 44. He was also the youngest chairman of the Indian Banks Association.
There was a point though when Vaghul left banking. He had risen up SBI’s ranks, mentored by another veteran banker, SBI chairman R K Talwar. But those were the heydays of Indian socialism. Bureaucrats thought they knew how banks should be run. Vaghul left banking, unwilling to follow bureaucratic diktats. Unusually for a man who dealt with money, he spent much of his break from finance studying spirituality at Swami Chinmayananda’s Ashram in Rishikesh. He also had a stint as director of the National Institute of Bank Management.
The job he took when he rejoined banking was the one that came to define him, and change Indian banking. In 1985, he took over the reins of what was then the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI).
To him goes the credit of building India’s first credit rating agency, Crisil. He set up ICICI Securities as an independent investment bank. Under him, ICICI was the first brave few which ventured into new age banking. But Vaghul was a pioneer in another, equally pathbreaking way. He broke the mould of stodgy recruitment practices that defined most of India Inc by, first, being a great talent spotter and, second, being a firm believer in a gender-neutral meritocracy.
