His focus on ATMs put the power in the hands of the consumer. You would do well to bank on him hitting the top spot in the years to come.

Think financial services in India and one can’t help but think about KV Kamath. Kamath, 57, is the man credited with driving not only ICICI Bank’s growth, but also that of the entire financial services sector in the country. This was the year that saw ICICI Bank hit the capital markets with one of the biggest equity issues for a banking institution in recent memory.

Taking ICICI from an industrial project finance institution into India’s most comprehensive financial services powerhouse with interests in retail banking, insurance, online trading and BPO among others, Kamath may easily be called the man who transformed the face of Indian banking.

The reverse merger of ICICI with ICICI Bank, the single biggest merger in Indian financial sector history, counts as his biggest visible achievement, but Kamath is known to be man of few words and have a greater bias for action and results.

A mechanical engineer from REC Karnataka and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad in 1971, Kamath’s first job was with ICICI’s project finance division, where he initiated and implemented the firm’s computerisation programme.

His fondness for technology and its potential continued to be the focal point of his vision for the future, and helped him take ICICI Bank to become the most technologically savvy banking company in India.

At a time when banking was synonymous with the physical banking approach of public sector banks, Kamath introduced the ATM mode of banking that was soon duplicated by most other banks.

With more than half of the bank’s customers accessing its services through ATMs, internet banking and the like, ICICI Bank has shown the way for Indian banks to take their services to the next level.

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