MUMBAI: For a bank that has long been a training ground for financial-sector talent, there is a certain symmetry in Anup Bagchi becoming the first outsider to head HDFC Bank. The bigger distinction is that the outsider comes from ICICI, an institution whose seniors have long been conscious of playing catch-up with HDFC Bank, first in market capitalisation and later in size.Bagchi has spent most of his career inside the ICICI group. A chemical engineer from IIT Kanpur, he joined ICICI after an MBA in finance from IIM Bangalore. His first significant assignment at ICICI was the launch of ICICI Direct under ICICI Securities, during the exuberance of the dotcom era. Over more than three decades, he has moved across treasury, retail and wholesale banking, capital markets, wealth management, insurance and digital financial services.His career has been less about a single specialisation than about moving between businesses. He was CEO & MD of ICICI Securities before becoming an executive director at ICICI Bank in 2017. At the bank, he first oversaw retail, business and rural banking and later wholesale banking. He was also chairman of ICICI Prudential Asset Management and served on the boards of ICICI Prudential Pension Funds Management and ICICI Home Finance.Colleagues describe Bagchi as a big-picture manager who prefers to give teams both a destination and a route to reach it. He is a firm leader, but one known for persuasion rather than theatrics. That approach has also shaped his management style. He is regarded as unusually grounded for someone who has occupied senior positions across a large financial conglomerate, holding meetings with executives in the common canteen rather than behind glass doors.Since June 2023, Bagchi has headed ICICI Prudential Life Insurance. During his tenure, the insurer crossed Rs 10,000 crore in annualised premium equivalent for the first time in FY2025.There is another, less visible, feature of Bagchi’s career: he has tended to travel light. During transfers between ICICI group businesses, he is known to have moved without taking large teams with him.
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