Standard Chartered Bank has turned into the most profitable foreign bank in the country under the stewardship of Zarin Daruwala, Cluster CEO, India and South Asia. The India franchise was the third-highest operating income earner in 2022 for the UK-headquartered StanChart Group globally at $1,227 million. Daruwala is the first woman to head the bank in India in 163 years.
StanChart has come a long way since Daruwala became CEO of the India franchise in April 2016. She brought the bank’s India operations back to profitability by de-risking its asset base, reworking sub-optimal businesses/ products, and transforming the balance sheet to one driven by retail liquidity. She later bolstered wealth management and M&A practices, and expanded digitisation of services.
Daruwala has also raised over $10 billion in sustainable finance in the last two years, besides being an arranger for the largest sustainability-linked loan of $1.3 billion in healthcare in Asia. She is also an arranger/ lender in transactions funding greenfield construction of close to 6,000 MW of renewable energy. — B.S. Srinivasalu Reddy