'IndusInd to rebuild senior management team in 6 months'

Rajiv Anand took charge as the managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) of IndusInd Bank in August after his predecessor quit following accounting lapses. In a telephonic interaction with Manojit Saha, Anand spells out the road map to rebuild the private lender over the next three years. Edited excerpts:

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Loans and deposits have fallen in Q2, both sequentially and year-on-year. Was that a conscious strategy?

■ It was a conscious call to shed some of our high-cost deposits and low-yielding assets. So, it is a rebalancing of the portfolio that is currently playing out. If you notice, retail deposits have remained stable.

Our intent is to gradually replace higher-cost deposits with a larger share of Casa (Current Account and Savings Account) and retail deposits. Casa is stable at around 31 per cent of total deposits.

The Casa ratio is lower than that of peers. How do you plan to improve the share?

■ There are multiple strategies to shore up our current and savings account balances. Firstly, we are not opening enough current accounts, and we need to improve team productivity.

Secondly, our salary account franchise is relatively weak, and that is something we are addressing. We have traditionally had a very strong senior citizens’ franchise, and we intend to build on that strength.

There is also work to be done in terms of operational efficiency and processes, which I am sure will enhance branch productivity. Finally, we continue to invest in our digital capabilities, which will help us engage more effectively with existing customers.

Will this rebalancing of both the loan and deposit book continue for a few quarters?

■ The intent, of course, is to grow on a quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-Q) basis. The way I see it, this is a three-year journey.

Year one is about bringing growth back to industry levels; the second is about growing faster than the industry; and the third year will be about dominating in some of our focus sectors.