R Venkataraman Catholic Syrian Bank Syndicate Bank

It is not often that you have someone who has spent the first two decades of his life in a quiet Tier two town in Tamil Nadu with very little exposure to city life reaching the top of the Banking World. R Venkataraman is clearly an exception. While he aspired to be a Mathematics Teacher for all his life, opportunities at 22 led him into the banking space and he grabbed it with both hands and made a mark for himself in four different banks. While he was roped in by the promoters of the Catholic Syrian bank to head the Kerala headquartered bank as its Chairman and CEO in his late 50s, Syndicate Bank remains his favourite bank for it helped him to graduate to what he is today. He also played a role in  the IT industry where for TCS he set up the Virtual Banking Services and Treasury Products. A cricket fanatic right from his childhood days, he watched at the Wankhade Stadium that unforgettable incident of K Srikkanth’s run out in his debut test match in 1981. He remained a close confidant of the late VB Chandrasekar and had met him just a few months before his death.  Here is the story of a remarkable Banker who made his way to top of the leader board without a  God Father.

R Venkataraman’s forefathers hailed from Kodimangalam, a village near Kumbakonam. But his father had moved to Dindigul very early on in his life and served in the Co-operative Bank there till his retirement in 1971. Dindigul was renowned for the historical Sundararaja Perumal Temple in Dhaadi Kombu (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2008/10/thaadi-kombu-soundararaja-perumal.html) that is abound with beautiful sculptures but there was not much of exposure in those early years other than leading a religious life visiting the neighbourhood temples. 

Venkataraman's childhood in Dindigul was largely uneventful and there was no inkling of him becoming a banker for his early interest was in Mathematics. His interest had become so addictive that after his centum in Maths in SSLC, he aspired to spend his life as a Maths Teacher. He was a Gold Medalist in SSLC and a Topper at College as well.

Outside of academics, he was an active participant in elocution contests, where he won many prizes and at the cricket ground where he bowled off spin. Later on, he captained the Arts College cricket team during his three years as a B. Sc Maths student. His association as a lover of cricket has remained right to this day and he rooted for the country in the recent World Championship final watching the entire match from his home in T. Nagar.

His amma’s musical interest led him to attend kutcheris right from his days as a teenager at the temples in Dindigul including Abirami Amman, Mariamamman, Kottaikulam Hanuman and Srinivasa Perumal Temple (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2012/11/dindigul-srinivasa-perumal-temple.html). “It was the Nagaswaram recitals in temples that led to my decades long interest in Kutcheris.” 

With an eye on pursuing a career in teaching, he moved to Madurai for his Post Graduation in Mathematics under the tutorship of Dr. M Venkataraman. As things turned out, there were no new vacancies for a Maths Teacher in any of the colleges. Around the same time, the BSRB called in for an examination to recruit officers “I got through the competitive examination and joined Syndicate Bank as an officer in Vellore in 1972. While I wanted to explore opportunities as a teacher, my appa asked me to take up the bank job as it offered long term security.”

And there ended Venkataraman’s dream of becoming a Maths Teacher.

After a brief period in Erode, he moved to Bombay in 1975 and worked there for a dozen years, one that he considers as a life changing experience “Professionally it was the best corporate experience in my life. The opportunity to interact and work with the top bankers in the country, the engaging experience of travelling to office in a Suburban train and managing tough customers with high expectations taught me a lot in my banking career. It was a very fast paced life there but if someone wants to get to the top of the business world in India, a stint in Bombay will provide a rich learning experience that will stand him in good stead later on in his career.”

It was also during this period in Bombay that he realized the importance of expanding his Banking knowledge. He completed CAIIB and followed that with Diplomas in International Banking, Business Management and Financial Services. In this phase, he was also a member of the Group of ForEx experts at FEDAI.  While in Bombay, he had begun delivering lectures in Staff Training Colleges on Credit and ForEx. He was also a visiting faculty in the Bankers Training College of RBI.

Alongside his professional growth, he expanded his musical interest and was a regular at the Shanmugananda hall in Bombay during the 1980s.

India’s upcoming test series against England took him back to the memories of the test match in 1981. It was during his long phase in Bombay with Syndicate Bank that he had the opportunity to watch that unforgettable debut test match of K Srikkanth (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/10/abhinav-mukund-bizarre-dismissal.html) at the Wankhade Stadium “It was a great experience to be watching a Test match at the ground in those days. The stadium was packed and we were against Willis and Botham. As one from Tamil Nadu, I was excited to watch our hero Srikkanth open alongside the legendary Gavaskar but was completely saddened by the way he strolled out of his crease to tap the pitch and run out by John Emburey.”

For the first time in his life, he moved to Madras in the late 1980s at the Regional Inspectorate/Vigilance department. After about five years in Madras, he moved back to Bombay as the Divisional Manager (International Banking Division) where he was the head of Systems and Processes as well the ForEx Head. 

He considers his 23years at Syndicate Bank as the best in his banking career “It was those two decades at Syndicate Bank that laid the foundation for my career growth in later years. The solid foundation there helped me graduate the next level in other banks.”

He had settled down well at Syndicate Bank and was enjoying his role there when an unexpected call came his way in 1995. Private Sector Bank, Bank of Madura, was on an expansion spree and had turned into a popular bank having caught the eye of the customers in that phase. As part of that expansion, they were look for a professional to head their Foreign Exchange Division and  they offer him that niche and specialised role.

He joined the Bank as an AGM in September 1995 and played an important role in their transformation over the five year stint by anchoring the integration of the ForEx and Treasury. At Bank of Madura, Venkataraman travelled to the Middle East and Malaysia to integrate the Rupee Drawing arrangements. He recalls his modus operandi of handling what could sometimes be a tricky operations“I was cautious in my approach and the key was to not incur any loss in ForEx. I had laid out a clear policy guideline and adhered to the safeguards advised by the RBI, especially in ForEx dealings. There was no flashy trading or leveraging opportunities to make quick money for the bank. It was a safety first model of working.”

In this period, he was deputed for a reputed Euro conference organised by Citibank in Thailand. He was a regular at the IFMR as a visiting faculty for management lectures.

The talks of the BOM’s merger with ICICI Bank coincided with a call from Lord Krishna Bank. After one and a half years of ForEx role in Delhi, he moved to the Ernakulam HO as the Head of Operations and worked there till 2007. He made inroads in ForEx profitability despite it being a small bank. It was also Venkataraman who automated the whole operations in ForEx “Even though it was a smallish bank compared to Bank of Madura in terms of size, it was a rich experience for me to manage the operations at Lord Krishna Bank.”

During his time as the ForEx Head at Lord Krishna Bank, Venkataraman made several trips to Saudi Arabia, Muscat, Bahrain and Doha to finalise Rupee Drawing arrangements interacting with Non Resident clients and to bring in Non Resident investments.

Having tracked his progress, the promoters of Catholic Syrian Bank saw him as an ideal candidate to head the bank and roped him as the Chairman and CEO end of July 2007. It was almost a dream come true for the man from Dindigul, where there was almost zero exposure to corporate life. He moved from Ernakulam to the CSB’s headquarters in Trissur. During his three year stint, the bank’s profitability peaked and was able to pay dividend of 30%. 

He had taken over as the Chief when the Bank’s business was just over Rs. 7000cr. Under his leadership, business grew rapidly and doubled. It was a phase that saw a large expansion of the branch network as well as the biggest automation seen at the bank. He anchored three AGMs in a phase when talks were rife of the merger with Federal Bank. He was at the center of attention and for a while was hounded with queries on the merger.

Having spent almost a decade in Kerala, he retired end of 2009 around the time when the merger talks had hit a roadblock. He calls the phase in Kerala as a fulfilling experience “I enjoyed working in Kerala. Personally, I was able to deliver results for both Lord Krishna Bank and Catholic Syrian Bank and a fulfilling experience for me to have worked in Ernakulam and Trissur. More importantly, the promoters were very happy with my performance and wanted me to continue for another year but I was keen to return to Madras.”

He was missing the Margazhi Kutcheris as by then he had become a big music buff!!!

Having worked for almost four decades, he took a short breaking from the Banking circuit and took to his favourite option – Teaching. For a brief while, he served as a guest faculty at LIBA teaching Banking and Finance and enjoyed what was he loved most in life.  

However, another offer came soon after this time another unexpected one from the IT industry. TCS wanted him as a Consulting advisor and for three years he worked onsite at the Whitefield center setting up the Virtual Banking services as well as Treasury Products which they  were to cater to many banks worldwide. For another year, he worked offsite in the Banking space at TCS.

Prior to the Pandemic, he would not miss a day of the Margazhi Kutcheri and would jump from one Sabha to another each day of the season.

Despite all his successes at Lord Krishna Bank and CSB at Senior Management roles, Venkataraman looks back at his over two decades stint in Syndicate Bank as his favourite “Syndicate Bank remains my favourite. I joined afresh from College  with all my thoughts till that time having been on wanting to become a Maths Teacher and it was my experience there in varied roles that helped me graduate to what I am today. Syndicate Bank gave me the exposure across departments that were to serve as great value to me later on in my management stints.”

Venkataraman is 73 and the Pandemic has locked him inside his Syndicate Bank constructed Quarters in T. Nagar off North Boag Road for 15months. Just a couple of years back, he lost a long time friend in cricketer VB Chandrasekar (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/01/vb-chandrasekar.html) for whose family he had been a close confidant for several years. He himself has also not enjoyed great health in the recent past. Despite the restrictions and the challenges, the credibility he has enjoyed over several decades has led to offers continuing to pour in for consultancy roles in the Banking space. 

It may not be long before he is back to serving the Banking Sector again with his rich experience and expertise. For the moment, he is spending his time listening to the favourite songs of Bombay Jayashree, Ranjani Gayathri and Sanjay Subrahmaniam and is eagerly looking forward to India’s Test Series in England.