TOP WOMEN BANKERS IN INDIA 2015

Women are playing a vital role in India’s banking sector. In fact, the sector has large number of women at the helm of affairs with several women managing directors. Currently, some of India’s biggest banks are headed by women. India’s largest commercial bank is also run by a woman. Women started joining banks only in the late 70s and mostly at clerical levels. With career progression reaching an apex, the industry is likely to have more women at the top in the years to come.

However, it is also true that very few women reach the top in the public sector banking industry. One critical contributing factor is the transfer policy in banks. Typically, a bank officer needs to work at a dozen different places, including in a mandatory rural posting, to move up the hierarchy. In the absence of a support system, women officers invariably end up sacrificing their careers to look after their family and children. Here, are the names India’s most powerful women bankers.

Arundhati Bhattacharya is the chairman of country’s largest commercial bank, State Bank of India (SBI). She is the first women to head SBI in its 207-year history. She joined SBI as a direct recruit officer in 1977 and in her over three decades of service; she has held various assignments spanning credit, forex, treasury and retail operations. She was involved in setting up several new units of the bank, including SBI General Insurance, SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Fund, SBI SG Securities Ltd as well as the launch of new IT platforms such as mobile banking and financial planning in the bank.

Chanda Kochhar is the managing director and chief executive officer of ICICI Bank, India's second-largest commercial bank and the largest in the private sector. She began her career, with erstwhile ICICI Limited in 1984 and was elevated to the Board of Directors of ICICI Bank in 2001.

Shikha Sharma is the managing director & CEO of Axis Bank since 2009. She began her career with the ICICI group where she has worked across various verticals like project finance, retail banking and investment banking. Her last assignment was as managing director & CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company.

Usha Ananthasubramanian is the chairperson and managing director of Bharatiya Mahila Bank, the first all-women bank. In a career spanning over 31 years, she has worked in various positions in the banking and allied areas. She started her career in the actuarial department with LIC and banking career in February 1982 as a specialist officer in the planning stream of Bank of Baroda. Before joining BMB, she was an executive director with Punjab National Bank.