Roundtable
FINDING A WINNING PRIVATE
BANKING STRATEGY IN INDIA
India’s private banking and
wealth management leaders need to
think long term – and on a bigger
scale than anything which exists today
– if they are to take full advantage of
the many opportunities in the market.
This requires the industry to over-
come the many challenges it faces.
These include the changing dynamics
of the market, far-reaching regulatory
changes over the past two to three
years, high cost-income ratios, a shal-
low talent pool, the race for assets,
and a limited product set.
Collaboration is one way to achieve a
consistent and united voice as a start-
ing point, said participants. As is pro-
active and appropriate regulation.
These were some of the thoughts of
chief executive officers (CEOs) and
other senior management in the In-
dian private banking and wealth man-
agement market at a private round-
table discussion hosted by Hubbis in
Mumbai in April 2012.
Ultimately, succeeding in Indian pri-
vate banking might mean building a
new type of business, said some CEOs,
given that the industry was so focused
pre-2008 on execution rather than
training relationship managers and
educating clients.
For further information, This requires firms to first get togeth-
please contact: er to work towards the establishment
of a more robust industry, and there-
Hansi Mehrotra
fore to be patient.
Managing Director, India
Hubbis
T 91 22 4070 0371 Yet there is strong demand, it seems,
E hansi.mehrotra@hubbis.com for a self-regulatory body to give the
Hansi Mehrotra | Managing Director, India | T 91 22 4070 0371 | E hansi.mehrotra@hubbis.com
industry a more structured way to
develop and ensure higher standards
– for example, creating registers of
advisers which have been engaged in
wrong-doing, in turn creating more
trust and confidence among clients.
Another key challenge highlighted is
the fact that many firms in India en-
gage in private wealth management –
not private banking.
And with more than 40% of savings
going into real estate, organisations
which don’t have a lending proposition
and just rely on wealth management
or private banking might find it diffi-
cult to make money.
The right business model might also
require a move away from the tradi-
tional and Western-style asset-gath-
ering approach, and instead towards
ensuring profitability by only taking on
client assets which yield a return on
capital.
A potential way the industry might
evolve is also through fragmentation
of firms and clients – given that many
clients are model-agnostic so pick-
and-choose what is best-in-class from
a particular model.
In terms of some of the other emerg-
ing opportunities, industry leaders
said there is some potential for an
external asset management model as
a complementary offering. Further,
there needs to be a shift from a prod-
uct strategy to a portfolio strategy to
bring the right offering to those clients
who are willing to pay for advice.
1
FINDING A WINNING PRIVATE BANKING STRATEGY IN INDIA

Chairperson

Hansi Mehrotra
Managing Director, India
Hubbis

Participants

Ajay Bagga Nitin Rao

Head of Private Wealth Management Senior Executive Vice President
India Private Banking Group & Third Party Products
Deutsche Bank HDFC Bank

Amit Pande Rajesh Saluja

Head Privee, Private Banking Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director
Axis Bank ASK Wealth Advisors

Anshu Kapoor Rohit Bhuta

Head, Private Wealth Management Chief Executive Officer
Edelweiss Capital Religare Macquarie Private Wealth

Anurag Seth Sameer Kaul

Head, Global Wealth Management Head & Global Market Manager, India
Quant Capital Advisors Citi Private Bank

PR Dilip Sharad Sharma

Managing Director Country Head, Wealth Management
Impetus Wealth Management BNP Paribas Wealth Management

Karan Bhagat Shiv Gupta

Managing Director & Managing Director, Private Banking India
Chief Executive Officer RBS Private Banking
IIFL Private Wealth Management

In the shorter term, therefore, it is tablishing specific plans, firms need to

about doing what it takes tactically to think shorter term with specific mile-
INDUSTRY TRENDS & achieve individual milestones so each stones. And for foreign players, global
OUTLOOK firm can meet the goals it sets as part parent companies must be supportive
of the longer term strategy. of these timeframes.

Hansi Mehrotra: As a starting point,

From our perspective, the scale needs Sharad Sharma: I have a slightly dif-
what is your outlook for the private
to be much larger than anything which ferent view after being a practitioner
banking industry in India, and how are
exists in the market today. for 10 years in the wealth manage-
you positing your organisations?
ment space as a foreign player. We
This means that the focus should be saw good growth of wealth manage-
Shiv Gupta: When I think about the
much longer than four or five years, ment business in the past, especially
outlook for private banking in India,
even if this creates forecasting and from 2004 to 2007.
we should all look at the industry as
planning difficulties.
something which we need to scale if
However, the industry now faces vari-
we are to take full advantage of the
Hansi Mehrotra: So what does long ous issues, such as changing dynam-
opportunities over the long term.
term in a private banking strategy? ics of the market and the regulatory
changes over the past two to three
This requires all market leaders to po-
Shiv Gupta: When establishing stra- years. After seeing what is happen-
sition themselves in a way which can
tegic intent, this means thinking over ing in India, my personal view is that
do this.
the next five to 10 years; but when es- banks create suitable platforms for

Hansi Mehrotra | Managing Director, India | T 91 22 4070 0371 | E hansi.mehrotra@hubbis.com 2

FINDING A WINNING PRIVATE BANKING STRATEGY IN INDIA

Nitin Rao
HDFC Bank

meeting their clients’ needs even if
this may require segregation of their
private banking businesses.
With a hybrid model, there is a fair
amount of duplication that has cost
and compliance implications. As a re-
sult, we have to have clear rules stat-
ing what is possible to do within the
existing platforms.
This won’t happen quickly, so taking
a view over three to five years is a
reasonable timeframe.
Rohit Bhuta: The industry has shot
itself in the foot. Pre-2008, it was
all about execution, and clients and
advisers were all making money, so
firms didn’t focus on training rela-
tionship managers (RMs) effectively.
RMs moved from one organisation to
another, receiving salary increases of
anywhere from 10% to 50%, and we
are now finding ourselves in a situa-
tion where the remuneration levels are
not in line with their underlying skill-
set. Many firms are finding that clients
are asking for direction and leadership
but are not getting it simply because
there is no know how of how to.
I am looking for advisers with the right
skill-set but I can’t find them, and
that’s a conundrum.
So while having a three- to five-year
outlook is great, as an industry we need
to accept that while we go through the
training and education process, we will
lose first before we gain.

Nitin Rao: Somebody recently asked

me whether we could grow the busi-
ness five-times in the next three years
and I almost fell out of my chair. There
are many challenges, and post-regula-
tory changes we need to build a new
type of business.

Given that the costs are high, while

income is increasingly difficult, re-
building the business has to be done
in a viable way. As a result, I see con-
solidation over the next year or so.
Then, when there is a recovery and
firms start making money, better cost-
income dynamics will make it possible Hansi Mehrotra
to grow the business. Hubbis

Hansi Mehrotra | Managing Director, India | T 91 22 4070 0371 | E hansi.mehrotra@hubbis.com 3

FINDING A WINNING PRIVATE BANKING STRATEGY IN INDIA
We must all admit first and foremost
that a robust wealth management in-
dustry has not in fact existed in India.
Acceptance is half the battle won – we
then need to get together as industry
leaders to work towards the establish-
ment of the industry. There will in-
evitably be losses before any business
of significance can be achieved – pa-
tience must be the name of the game
at least for the next 24 to 36 months.
Amit Pande: Even though Indian
private banking is clearly a long-term
business, the industry is going through
a consolidation phase right now, and
internally every firm is going through
its own challenges at the moment,
either locally or globally, as a result
of the rising cost-income pressures.
However, firms are are contributing to
the increasing costs because many of
us are competing for the same amount
of manpower.
The industry is facing a challenge in
scaling up the advisory calls across
all clients because of capability is-
sues among the client relationship
side of business, therefore leading to
deviations between model versus cli-
ent portfolios. This is leading to the
dilution of value proposition which the
platform brings to the clients.
Amit Pande
Axis Bank
Hansi Mehrotra | Managing Director, India | T 91 22 4070 0371 | E hansi.mehrotra@hubbis.com
Sameer Kaul
Citi Private Bank
Sameer Kaul: Income appears to be
falling while costs continue to rise, and
I am curious as to whether enough
firms in the industry are really think-
ing about the cost-income challenge.
A key challenge to address is the fact
that most firms in India do private
wealth management – not private
banking. With roughly 42% of the
savings of clients in this country go-
ing into real estate, firms which don’t
have a lending proposition and just
rely on wealth management or private
banking will find it difficult to make
money.
Further, I agree that there is a lack of
talent, and many people are not really
private bankers in the true sense, and
instead just push products.
For Citi, our thought process is to con-
tain expenses and hire selectively peo-
ple with a certain amount of vintage
who can add value to our clients. We
also have a very defined target market
for private banking clients, and we see
opportunities in terms of leveraging
and real estate.
Increasingly, when we start to deal
with clients who have more than 50
to 100 crores which they want us to
manage, we are walking away from
transactions because there’s nothing
on the table. Further, there is increas-
ing price-cutting by some local and
multi-national players.
Shiv Gupta: I was somewhat encour-
aged when there was talk previously
in the industry about a self-regulatory
body, whether this is supervised or
not, because getting together in a
slightly more structured way would be
a forum to address these issues. For
example, creating registers of advisers
which have been engaged in wrong-
doing will help to strengthen the in-
dustry in the long run.
4
FINDING A WINNING PRIVATE BANKING STRATEGY IN INDIA
Anshu Kapoor
Edelweiss Capital
In addition, whether it is called pri-
vate banking or private wealth man-
agement, firms need to find a vehicle
which allows them to aggregate which-
ever products and services they offer
as efficiently as possible – whether
these include banking, investment
services, wealth planning, credit ser-
vices or whatever other overlays they
choose to provide.
So I would like to see a distinct um-
brella regulatory framework with a
clear set of guidelines which address-
es all the activities we provide and a
vehicle which firm can use in an ef-
ficient way to be able to deliver that,
whether this is an NBFC or a bank.
FINDING THE RIGHT
BUSINESS MODEL
Anshu Kapoor: We believe that the
opportunity in India will surprise us,
so we need to find the right revenue
and business models.
However, what’s happened to date is
that we’ve copied the global wealth
management asset-gathering ap-
proach. Yet clients in India are differ-
ent.
Hansi Mehrotra | Managing Director, India | T 91 22 4070 0371 | E hansi.mehrotra@hubbis.com
The challenges include people, in
terms of trying to create a supply
chain, and also penetration, in terms
of trying to do more with each client
given that owner-promoters have two
balance sheets – the corporate side
and the private wealth. Also, creating
distribution by using technology is a
hurdle to overcome, for example use
mobile offerings to deliver services or
client experience at lower cost, and to
provide scale.
Our approach has been to try to invert
the cost structure in some way by cre-
ating an independent consulting mod-
el, where we try to find entrepreneurs
rather than employees and give them
access to our entire platform. We’ve
hired about five to six people to do
this so far, and the results are encour-
aging. They use our brand to support
and train them. Because they are in-
dependent, there is no fixed cost.
PR Dilip: In my experience, the most
effective financial adviser is one who
can think independently without bear-
ing in mind any of the his own busi-
ness imperatives while advising a
client. Someone who is employed
within an organisation works under a
controlled environment – often with
weekly, monthly and quarterly per-
formance reviews – whereas a person
who is totally independent gives unbi-
ased advice which the client is able to
understand and accept.
Revenue models based on pure advi-
sory fees increase the trust-level of
the client. However, at present, advis-
ers in India don’t have much of pricing
power, partly because of the lack of
awareness about the need for prudent
financial planning or asset allocation,
and partly because of the general lack
of trust.
I find that clients insist on meeting the
senior-most official in the organisation,
even though other wealth managers
are very adequately experienced and
well-qualified. This creates a problem
in terms of being able to scale up the
business. The most sought-after ser-
vice model by UHNIs is a blend of the
size and scale of a large organisation
combined with highly personalized
services of small financial boutique.
Nitin Rao: My approach is to take the
150 people within private banking who
were each providing a mix of products
and services, and then segregating
their duties.
This has involved us having 100 in-
dividuals who have an investment
PR Dilip
Impetus Wealth Management
5
FINDING A WINNING PRIVATE BANKING STRATEGY IN INDIA

background to operate as plain vanilla

bankers, making it possible to run a vi-
able cost-income model at that end of

Many clients, even in the UHNI

the organisation. We have then taken
the other 50 or so advisers to develop
them into mid-tie private bankers, tar-
geting the 1 to 10 crore segment. Over
that we can then build the UHNI prop-
segment, still don’t use third-party
osition and offer family office services.
This creates a feed of talent to service wealth managers and prefer to remain
dependent on their chartered accountants
the different client segments.

Rajesh Saluja: While the long-term

opportunity is clear, I don’t think the
industry has got going yet. It’s not
there either in terms of client sophisti-
cation or quality of advisers. Also, the
products we offer tend to be vanilla
most of the time.
In the short term, therefore, the strat-
egy for many firms is to look at offer-
ing alternative investments which are
proprietary in nature and for which the
margins are better – especially in real
estate and private equity.
A big change that I foresee going for-
ward is a move away from the previ-
ous focus on building AUM. Instead,
profitability is now key, so many firms
will move away from unprofitable cli-
ents and from taking on AUM which
doesn’t yield good returns on capital.
or tax advisers.
This focus on profitability is also the
case for foreign players, which used
to have a much longer horizon in In-
dia but today don’t want to accept 10
years of loss-making with bloated cost
structures.
This will lead to some short-term pain
as firms downsize to change costly
structures.
Another big factor which will take the
industry to a different level is clearly
regulation, where doing things like
having registered advisers and firms,
and auditing the sales process, will
create more trust and confidence
among client. Many clients, even in
the UHNI segment, still don’t use third
party wealth managers and prefer to
remain dependent on their chartered
accountants or tax advisers.
Ajay Bagga: There are various dy-
namics to bear in mind as we look at
the private banking industry. First, it
is coming off the back of multi-year
product non-performance, so now is
the time to look at cost-income ratios,
and it is creating a cautious mind-set.

Ajay Bagga
Deutsche Bank

Hansi Mehrotra | Managing Director, India | T 91 22 4070 0371 | E hansi.mehrotra@hubbis.com 6

FINDING A WINNING PRIVATE BANKING STRATEGY IN INDIA

Given the limited product set, firms

have to rely on technology, the
aggregation of information, and
possibly the good administration of
assets to differentiate themselves.
Karan Bhagat
IIFL Private Wealth Management

Secondly, there will always be a few
less rational players in the industry
among the 25 or so players which will
look to buy market share.
Thirdly, the macro outlook for India
has been revised negatively, so most
foreign firms are likely to explore the
options of China and then Indonesia
before India.
Fourthly, when we look at mutual fund
AUM, it has gone down to June 2009
levels, and people are moving out of
the insurance sector too. This is bring-
ing a lot of pressure on fees, which is
impacting private banks.
el, and on mind share, which is what
clients are looking for.
Karan Bhagat: From a client perspec-
tive, average returns for the last five
years on a compounded basis, subject
to a client managing their portfolio
very well, would be in the region of
7% to 9%. And that too, if two-thirds
of their assets had most likely been in
fixed income rather than equities. As
a result, the quantum of commissions
earned will automatically be capped.
Going forward, most clients which are
today giving us a retention of 55 to
70 basis points should move towards
100 to 120 basis points. This will be
possible if the structure allows it and
if we can add some kind of alpha to
the portfolio.
Given the limited product set, firms
have to rely on technology, the ag-
gregation of information, and possibly
the good administration of assets to
differentiate themselves.

Finally, when I look to the future,

firms need to keep a close watch on
the bottom line to ensure they can
continue to survive. I think customers
are model-agnostic and will pick and
choose what is best-in-class from a
particular model. As a result, I don’t
think there will be consolidation, and
instead we will see fragmentation of
firms and clients.

Anurag Seth: I agree that the indus-

try will stay fragmented, and firms are
struggling between focusing on mar- Shiv Gupta
ket share, through a discounting mod- RBS Private Banking

Hansi Mehrotra | Managing Director, India | T 91 22 4070 0371 | E hansi.mehrotra@hubbis.com 7

FINDING A WINNING PRIVATE BANKING STRATEGY IN INDIA
Rohit Bhuta
Religare Macquarie Private Wealth
With AIF guidelines and other instru-
ments, I hope to see more diversity of
portfolios. Once that happens, clients
won’t be against paying a certain per-
centage of their returns.
A UNITED &
CONSISTENT VOICE
Hansi Mehrotra: What would you as
industry leaders aim to achieve if you
were to get together more often to
discuss the various issues such as we
have touched on already?
Shiv Gupta: We need to be realistic,
in the sense that most firms enter the
market driven by a certain amount of
self-interest, so look to do what they
think is the right combination of activi-
ties for them and their objectives.
With this in mind, regulation of any
nature – whether it is supervised or
self-regulated by the industry – will
create higher standards in the indus-
try and improve its credibility overall.
One of the challenges for private bank-
ing is that there is always a dispro-
portionate contribution from market
Hansi Mehrotra | Managing Director, India | T 91 22 4070 0371 | E hansi.mehrotra@hubbis.com
At the moment, it seems the crucial
factor is the survival as models evolve.
But I think we will see wealth manage-
ment at least in the form of preferred
banking leapfrog, in the same way as
we saw in the telecom industry.
Rajesh Saluja: We are seeing issues
around scalability in the UHNI seg-
ment. These clients want to interact
with the most senior person in the or-
ganisation, because they believe these
individuals have the knowledge and
probably will have more continuity.
That means three or four people re-
gardless of how many advisers we
have. So even if we scale the business
to 50 advisers, for example, there will
performance from a correlation per-
only be a handful of people which are
spective, whether over a one-year or
really managing clients. This is to do
five-year timeframe. So given the mar-
with trust, as well as a loss of faith
ket circumstances over the past year
from clients as they see RMs continu-
or so, we should be realistic about the
ing to move firms. Even when we hire
extent to which any structural trans-
new advisers, we need to look at how
formation can take place.
much in AUM they actually bring with
Rohit Bhuta: It is important that as
them – as it is only about 10% to 20%
an industry we continue to come to-
maximum.
gether on a regular basis to discuss
There are no magic answers because
our macro issues, industry issues,
of the limited resources available. But
training issues and others, as a cat-
to expand the wealth management
alyst to the establishment of a more
business and acquire more clients will
formal wealth management industry.
It is about saying the same things in
the same language to encourage regu-
lators to ultimately establish this in-
dustry.
This will however only work if the fo-
rum is taken in the right spirit, which
is for the betterment of the industry,
and not used to judge each others’
businesses.
Ajay Bagga: A key issue we face as
an industry is that we call ourselves
private bankers, but we need to be
clear about what we are really offer-
ing which a small time broker in the
local neighborhood cannot provide to Rajesh Saluja
the investors. ASK Wealth Advisors
8
FINDING A WINNING PRIVATE BANKING STRATEGY IN INDIA
Anurag Seth
Quant Capital Advisors
rely on the average age of a private
banker to increase to around 40.
EMERGING
OPPORTUNITIES
Hansi Mehrotra: To what extent will
the Indian follow what’s happened in
Europe and Singapore in the develop-
ment of the external asset manage-
ment model, given that clients want
their advisers to be slightly older,
more experienced and better trained?
PR Dilip: By outsourcing the custodial
services from a reputed bank, at Im-
petus we have reduced the back-office
load on our organisation and increased
the comfort-levels of our clients.
As a result, we don’t need to have a
very big team for back-end activities.
Instead of having separate teams for
sales, investor profiling, and portfolio
construction and implementation, if a
well-trained professional takes the in-
vestor through the entire process, it
enhances the confidence and comfort
levels of the investor.
Hansi Mehrotra | Managing Director, India | T 91 22 4070 0371 | E hansi.mehrotra@hubbis.com
To be able to scale this, we would
need to identify good quality people
in different parts of the country and
they would act as channel-partners to
service the clients directly.
Rajesh Saluja: I think there is a re-
quirement in the Indian market for ex-
ternal asset managers, but scalability
is an issue.
Also, a lot of UHNIs have their own
set-ups along these lines already, with
chartered accountants and chief finan-
cial officers working for them.
However, it is in the mid-market and
for new wealth creators where the
requirement is coming from. These
clients see value in independent ad-
visers, as long as they are working as
part of an organisation.
Also, we need to be clear that the ex-
ternal asset management model, or
family office as we call it in India, is a
long way at the moment from what it
is internationally.
Sameer Kaul: In terms of opportuni-
ties going forward, I am seeing that
clients will give money to firms who
create new ideas for them. Giving cli-
ents pass-backs is a lose-lose situa-
tion.
But creating ideas either through your
own proprietary network or through
a third party will lead to product dif-
ferentiation, and the conversation
with clients won’t be focused on pass-
backs.
A concern I have about the industry in
India is that the threshold for people
to enter it and become a wealth man-
ager in India is very low.
Unlike in the US, where you have cer-
tification, which not everybody pass-
es, the entry standards in India seem
lower.
As a result, we all need to be con-
cerned about who we are putting in
front of the client, in terms of the in-
tegrity of that individual. The indus-
try would benefit from having higher
industry standards which will make it
more difficult for people to be wealth
managers than is the case today.
Nitin Rao: We now have a more de-
tailed bank audit to make it compul-
sory for our private bankers to focus
on the sales processes too.
This includes checking emails and
calls, and we find that some people
look to escape these controls by join-
ing another organisation where these
processes are not audited.
I encourage regulation and such au-
dits to be consistent so that advisers
cannot move firms and work without a
structured process.
Anurag Seth: Something else the in-
dustry needs to debate is how to move
from a product strategy to a portfolio
strategy.
Margins are coming down, but there
are enough clients who are willing to
pay, provided we bring them the right
product strategies.
Sharad Sharma
BNP Paribas Wealth Management
9
Contact details and profiles of participants
Sameer Kaul
Head & Global Market Manager, India
Citi Private Bank
Sameer joined Citibank, India, in July
1995 as a Management Associate in
Operations. In his 17 years with the
bank, he has done various assign-
ments across different functions and
businesses. He set up insurance dis-
tribution for the bank, has run the
mortgage business and was the busi-
ness head of the branch banking busi-
ness running a network of 42 branch-
es across 30 cities. In January 2001,
as the Country Insurance Manager,
he spearheaded the launch of Insur-
ance Business for Citibank in India.
He moved as the Mortgage Business
Head in August 2005 and after suc-
cessful completion of the ARR, moved
to the Branch Banking business as the
Business Manager in July 2007. He ran
a network of 42 branches that spans
30 cities and a business that delivers
more than US$100 million of revenue.
Contact details:
E sameer.kaul@citi.com
Hansi Mehrotra | Managing Director, India | T 91 22 4070 0371 | E hansi.mehrotra@hubbis.com
Amit Pande
Head Privee, Private Banking
Axis Bank
Amit is currently working as Head,
Privee & Investment Advisory Group.
He is the business head of the private
bank and also is responsible for driv-
ing the research function for captive
/ third-party products across asset
classes / products covering all client
segments for the bank. Amit also man-
ages the investment advisory proposi-
tion for the bank where-in the finan-
cial planning capabilities are housed
from the standpoint of managing cli-
ents’ portfolios. He comes with a sig-
nificant amount of work experience
spanning across 14 years in various
business’ viz, private bank, portfolio
management services and asset man-
agement companies and has worked
with firms like HSBC Private Bank,
Goldman Sachs, ICICI Prudential AMC
and Franklin Templeton AMC, among
others, in the past. He is a Post Grad-
uate Diploma in Planning & Manage-
ment and a graduate from University
of Delhi. He is an avid reader and
cherishes unwinding with his three-
year old daughter and by running as
he a marathoner.
Contact details:
E amit.pande@axisbank.com
Anshu Kapoor
Head, Private Wealth Management
Edelweiss Capital
A CFA and a business management
graduate from Delhi University, Anshu
brings with him over 15 years of ex-
perience in Private Banking, Interna-
tional Financial Markets and Consumer
Banking. At Edelweiss, he heads the
Private Wealth Management business.
Prior to joining Edelweiss, Anshu was
a Director at Merrill Lynch in India,
where he was instrumental in devel-
oping the Private Banking Investments
Advisory platform and the cross-bor-
der business that straddled the Middle
East, Asia Pacific and North America.
He brings with him expertise in Inter-
national Financial Markets owing to his
earlier stint with HSBC Private Bank in
Dubai.
Contact details:
E Anshu.kapoor@edelcap.com
10
Contact details and profiles of participants
Ajay Bagga
Head of Private Wealth Management
India
Deutsche Bank
Ajay has 22 years of experience in
the financial services segment, hav-
ing worked with global giants like
Deutsche Bank, Citigroup and General
Electric, as well as asset managers like
Pioneer ITI, Kotak Mahindra and Lo-
tus India Asset Management Company.
He is a member of the India Execu-
tive Committee of Deutsche Bank. He
also serves as a member of the Asia
Executive Committee of Private Wealth
Management at Deutsche Bank and is
a Director on the Board of Deutsche
India Investments. Ajay has also been
the Chairman of the Financial Planning
Standards Board of India, and he has
served on various industry committees
and think-tanks. He is a regular con-
tributor to electronic and print media
on the financial markets and banking,
as well as on financial planning and
investment management. Ajay is a
PGDBM from XLRI, Jamshedpur, and a
CFP as well as a Certified Mutual Fund
and Life Insurance Advisor.
Contact details:
E ajay.bagga@db.com
Hansi Mehrotra | Managing Director, India | T 91 22 4070 0371 | E hansi.mehrotra@hubbis.com
Rohit Bhuta
Chief Executive Officer
Religare Macquarie Private
Wealth
With over 20 years of experience
spanning seven key markets globally,
Rohit is a thought-leader in the finan-
cial services industry, with extensive
knowledge in the Wealth Manage-
ment space. He has worked with the
Macquarie group for over 18 years in
various capacities and geographies,
including Australia, Singapore, Malay-
sia, South Africa, Hong Kong and now
in India. He worked in the UK (two
years) and New Zealand (two years)
prior to joining the Macquarie Group.
Rohit joined the board of Religare
Macquarie Private Wealth as Director
in June 2009, and took over the re-
sponsibility of Chief Executive Officer
in September 2010. His strong domain
technical knowledge is complemented
by his high sense of empathy, logical
reasoning and coaching, placing him
within an elite visionary leadership
groups. He also sits on the board of
Brainwave Australia; an Australian
charity organization involved in assist-
ing children with brain illnesses, and
has also recently joined the advisory
board of Mewsic for Children, a Brett
Lee foundation set up to help under
privileged Indian children through mu-
sic.
Contact details:
E rohit.bhuta@religaremacquarie.com
Karan Bhagat
Managing Director &
Chief Executive Officer
IIFL Private Wealth Management
Karan is Managing Director & Chief Ex-
ecutive Officer of IIFL Private Wealth.
He joined India Infoline Group (now
re-named IIFL) to set-up IIFL Wealth
Management in early 2008 and is one
of the founding members. Karan is re-
sponsible for providing direction and
leadership towards the achievement
of the organisation’s philosophy, mis-
sion, vision and its strategic goals and
objectives. He has built a team of ex-
perienced and talented professionals
from within and outside the industry,
who work with and for some of the
most distinguished wealthy families in
India and abroad. He has a decade of
financial services industry experience,
starting his career with Kotak Wealth
Management. Karan holds an MBA in
finance from the Indian Institute of
Management, Bangalore, and acquired
his Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce
from St. Xavier’s College, Calcutta.
Contact details:
E karan@iiflw.com
11
Contact details and profiles of participants
Nitin Rao
Senior Executive Vice President
Private Banking Group &
Third Party Products
HDFC Bank
Nitin has had a career spanning across
manufacturing, management consul-
tancy, equity research on the buy and
sell sides, product management and
private banking spanning over two
decades. Prior to joining HDFC Bank,
he had stints with organisations like
AFF Ferguson, Khandwala Securities
& BNP Paribas. He joined the bank in
2002 and since then he has been in-
strumental in building the award-win-
ning private banking services. Apart
from supporting the bank’s research,
he has also built a strong third-party
product distribution business where
HDFC Bank is leader. Nitin’s educa-
tional background includes graduating
in Mechanical Engineering in 1988, fol-
lowed by post-graduation in manage-
ment from the Symbiosis Institute of
Business Management, Pune, in 1992.
Contact details:
E nitin.rao@hdfcbank.com
Hansi Mehrotra | Managing Director, India | T 91 22 4070 0371 | E hansi.mehrotra@hubbis.com
Rajesh Saluja
Chief Executive Officer &
Managing Director
ASK Wealth Advisors
Rajesh is the CEO & Managing Director
for ASK Wealth Advisors, a subsidiary
of the ASK Group in India. The ASK
Group, with over 28 years of experi-
ence in capital markets and equity
research, pioneered the concept of
Discretionary Portfolio Management
Services in India in 1983. Rajesh has
over 23 years’ experience across sales,
product and business management in
the Consumer Banking, Wealth Man-
agement and Private Wealth Advisory
industries. He joined the ASK Group in
Dec 2006 to set up the wealth advi-
sory business for the UHNI segment in
India and abroad. Today ASK Wealth
Advisors is one of India’s leading and
most respected wealth advisory and
family office players and is credited for
pioneering the concept of fee-based
wealth advisory services in India. Prior
to joining the ASK group, Rajesh was
the Business Head, Priority Banking &
Deposits for the Wealth Management
business of Standard Chartered Bank
in India. He holds a Bachelor degree
in Maths & Economics and a Masters
in Marketing Management.
Contact details:
E rsaluja@askwealthadvisors.com
Shiv Gupta
Managing Director
Private Banking India
RBS Private Banking
Shiv Gupta is Managing Director, Pri-
vate Banking, RBS NV India. RBS
Private Banking is part of the RBS
Wealth Division. He is also a member
of the RBS India Executive Committee
headed by Meera H. Sanyal, Country
Executive for India. Based in Mumbai,
Shiv oversees all aspects of RBS’ Pri-
vate Banking business in India which
has 85 staff including 28 private bank-
ers located in four offices across the
country. Shiv has been a part of the
RBS Group for 11 years and as one of
the founding members of the Coutts
International South Asian business,
was instrumental in growing it into
one of the most successful in the re-
gion. Prior to India, he was based in
Singapore managing the NRI business
in Asia Pacific in addition to the Thai-
land market. Born in India, Shiv is an
Economics graduate of the University
of Delhi.
Contact details:
E shiv.gupta@rbs.com
12
Contact details and profiles of participants
Anurag Seth
Head, Global Wealth Management
Quant Capital Advisors
Anurag has 13 years of experience in
Private Banking and Wealth Manage-
ment. He is currently Director and
Head, Global Wealth Management at
Quant Capital Advisors, India , driv-
ing the Wealth Management business
set up and advisory process. Has been
successful in launching a holistic ad-
visory model at Quant Capital, in line
with a client-centric approach. Prior
to joining Quant Capital, Anurag had
a long stint with Standard Chartered
Bank and was Head, Wealth Advisory,
India. He was instrumental in driving
Wealth Advisory business during his
11-year tenure with the bank. Dur-
ing this time, the Wealth Management
business built momentum and was
awarded with Best Structured Product
(Distribution) award and also CNBC
Best Financial Advisor awards for
2008 and 2011. Anurag is an INSEAD,
France Alumni and graduated from
SRCC, Delhi University.
Contact details:
E anurag.seth@quantcapital.co.in
Hansi Mehrotra | Managing Director, India | T 91 22 4070 0371 | E hansi.mehrotra@hubbis.com
P. R. Dilip
Managing Director
Impetus Wealth Management
PR Dilip is the Founder of Impetus
Wealth Management, which was es-
tablished in 1994. He has nearly two
decades of rich experience in the In-
dian Capital Markets in various capaci-
ties, including 10 years in the Portfolio
Management & Wealth Management
domain. His endeavour has been to
ensure the highest transparency and
proficiency in all the businesses con-
ducted by Impetus. He is a focused
Portfolio Manager, who believes in
educating an investor before accept-
ing his or her account under Portfolio
/ Wealth Management. His emphasis
has always been in an extensive pro-
cess-driven investment approach and
has a successful track record of having
established such systems in the past.
Identifying the right fusion of diversi-
fied asset classes is only the starting
point of his meticulous Wealth Man-
agement process.
Contact details:
E prdilip@impetusindia.in
Sharad Sharma
Country Head, Wealth Management
BNP Paribas Wealth Management
A career banker, Sharad has over two-
and-a-half decades of experience in the
industry. Over the years, he has worked
in forex treasury, corporate banking and
retail banking, liability management,
operations and most recently, in wealth
management. He is currently Country
Head, Wealth Management, India and
Member, Executive Management Com-
mittee, BNP Paribas India. For the past
10 years, he has led the wealth manage-
ment initiative for BNP Paribas Wealth
Management by creating a successful
model for the onshore business. He has
been with BNP Paribas since 1989 and
has held key management positions in
New Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai during
his tenure at the bank. Prior to BNP
Paribas, Sharad Sharma was with the
State Bank of India for seven years. He
is a Member on the Board of BNP Pari-
bas Investment Services India Private
Limited and Financial Planning Stan-
dards Board (FPSB), India. He holds a
Master’s Degree in Financial Manage-
ment from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of
Management Studies, Mumbai. He is
also a Certified Associate of Indian In-
stitute of Bankers and has received CFP
certification by FPSB, India.
Contact details:
E sharad.sharma@asia.bnpparibas.com
13