Love at first sight is still alive. About 10 months ago, P.R. Somasundaram flipped for an 85-year-old. He gave up a cushy job in Mumbai as managing director and CEO of Standard Chartered-STCI Securities to be with her in Karur, Tamil Nadu. “Sex appeal, you know, is a dangerous thing,” he says. His sensible half said a firm ‘No’ to his demand that she too move along with him. So, how’s life now? “Well, there are fewer arguments. The Blackberry Messenger is a sweeter option!” he chuckles, sighs deeply, and quickly adds: “I miss my son. He will give his senior board exams this summer”. It is sacrifice in the name of an elderly sweetheart, Lakshmi Vilas Bank.

Call it mid-life madness or whatever you like. It also struck Vishwavir ‘Vish’ Ahuja. He sat in Bank of America’s (BankAm) biggest sea-facing room on the 16th floor of Express Towers in Mumbai for eight years. In May 2009, BankAm merged with Merrill Lynch. Just over a year later, Ahuja, hopped over to the 68-year-old Ratnakar Bank in Maharashtra’s hinterland of Kolhapur.

SHYAM SRINIVASAN Age: 50 Corner room: MD & CEO, Federal Bank Where: Aluva, Kerala New itch: Turn Federal as a pan-India bank; make it big in SMEs, NRI business; gobble a rival bank if you get a chance Old corner room: Countryhead-Consumer banking, StanChart (India) What’s the pain: Nothing really. “I will never make as much money as I made at StanChart last year.”

“Out went the memberships of The Chambers, The Belvedere, the Gymkhanas and tony clubs, and the S-class Mercedes,” says Ahuja who is said to have been getting a $1-million-a-year packet. The family of four moved into a three-bedroom apartment on Peddar Road. It worked up Vasudhaa, his 16-year-old princess: “Will we be okay, papa?”

They were very much in “Sobo” (a slang for south Bombay). Yet, the young lady felt it was not the same as the swank five-bedroom pad at “Il Palazzo” on Malabar Hill, home to souls who breathe the rarefied air on India Inc.’s summit. She has since travelled with her papa to the dusty interiors of the state. “I wanted her to know that there’s life outside of the social circles she had seen so far,” says Ahuja thoughtfully.

The Moonwalkers
Somasundaram and Ahuja give company to Amitabh Chaturvedi of Dhanlaxmi Bank, Murali Natrajan of Development Credit Bank (DCB) and Shyam Srinivasan of Federal Bank. They, too, have wagered their plush cocoons “to engage with society in a more meaningful way”. You can’t call them “the famous five” just yet. The tag may be theirs just one day: they now have a crowd to walk with them; it is set to get bigger. Their capital is the sackloads of tricks mastered over the years as bankers. A great place to put it to use is an old private bank.

There are a dozen of them out there; their clientele are small-time businesses, agriculturists, farmers and tiny borrowers. It is a class the big commercial banks have failed to engage deeply with. Or find it not worth their precious time. Then, you have the agenda of financial inclusion; an old bank is the right vehicle to make it a bankable bet given its root and vintage.

There is more to it. A top-notch banker now has a chance to morph as an entrepreneur. You have to be fortuitous to get into this closed club. In 1993 (round one), five were waved in — Ramesh Gelli (Global Trust Bank), the Jains of Bennett, Coleman & Co. (TimesBank), the late Dev Ahuja of 20th Century Finance (Centurion Bank), Inderjit Singh (Bank of Punjab) and the Hindujas (IndusInd Bank). Three other licences went to institution-promoted banks — ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, IDBI Bank and UTI Bank (Axis Bank).

MURALI NATRAJAN Age: 49 Corner room: MD & CEO, Development Credit Bank (DCB) Where: Mumbai New itch: Smarten up DCB; make it a meaningful niche player Old corner room: Country head - consumer banking, StanChart (India) What’s the pain: There’s a little less in the pocket for sure. But, what the heck, “I get to be an entrepreneur”

In 2003 (round two), Uday Kotak (Kotak Mahindra Bank) and the trio of Rana Kapoor, his brother-in-law the late Ashok Kapur and Harkirat Singh got lucky (Yes Bank).

But there’s a new window that has opened. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) wants old private banks to give up their fuddy-duddy ways. The promoter-families (or shareholders) know for this to happen, you need lots of brains and capital. It is tough unless you get a Pied Piper to first walk in through the door. If you play the game well, you get to cash in or out on your stock options. The cry “play” has rang out; the game’s on.

Says Monish Shah, director, Deloitte (India): “You now have a lot who have done an extremely good job at foreign banks. They have dealt with entrepreneurs, especially new ones who cropped up post-1991. It’s natural they want to turn one, go to a new frontier.” Adds Priya Chetty-Rajagopal, vice-president at Stanton Chase, a global head-hunting agency: “In foreign banks, by the time you are 45, you know if you have made it or not. If you have made it, are you going to be just another face in a very successful crowd? The idea of creating your own legacy can be a very powerful motivation after that point.”

Aditya Puri, managing director and CEO of HDFC Bank, is seen as a ‘buccaneer’ — in the sense of an adventurer. He gave up his job as the boss of Citi-Malaysia and sold his options to set up HDFC Bank in 1994.

“Did you question Puri when he quit Citi 17 years ago for HDFC Bank?” asks Natrajan, managing director and CEO of DCB. Natrajan notched up a quarter century with American Express Bank, Citi and StanChart. In May 2009, he moved into DCB’s corner office. He printed a new business card as “foreign banks can be boring places after some time. You have to listen to somebody in London, New York or Singapore telling you what is a bad or good business idea”. He may not listen to you also if you tell him that Puri got to write on a clean slate, had the backing of HDFC and its chairman, Deepak Parekh.