Down Memory Lane
Srinivasaraghavan has been a Sundaram Finance lifer.
As a 28-year-old banker, while he was toying with the idea of becoming a school teacher, he came across a newspaper advertisement for the job of a marketing manager at Sundaram Finance. He applied and joined the company in 1983, leaving his teaching plans behind.
At the time, Sundaram Finance was a pure commercial vehicle financier. In the early 1980s, it entered the lease financing business. It was the first time that this was happening in India, Srinivasaraghavan says. “So, I came to Sundaram Finance, to join, what could have then be termed as an exciting startup opportunity.”
For his first 11 years at the company, Srinivasaraghavan spent his time building the concept of lease financing and helping expand the Chennai-focused brand to other parts of the country.
“It was around then, in 1998, that I was elevated to the board as the deputy managing director and was given responsibility beyond leasing, to look at the overall lending operations of the company, a large part of which was still commercial vehicle financing,” he says.
Along the way, came the many bumps that India’s NBFC sector has seen.
In 1996, emerged the CR Bhansali scam. CRB Capital Markets collapsed after allegation of embezzlement of nearly Rs 1,000 crore in deposits. This led to tighter regulations from the Reserve Bank of India and increased scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
The crisis prompted Sundaram Finance to look for ways to diversify its operations further. “This was also a time when we realised that our customer’s needs were increasing dramatically. So, we looked at diversification,” says Srinivasaraghavan.
In 1996, the company set up its asset management company, Sundaram Newton Asset Management Company Pvt. In 1999, it entered the housing finance segment. And, in 2000, it launched India’s first private sector general insurance company in partnership with UK-based Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance plc.
On Aug. 11, 2003, as the company celebrated its golden jubilee, Srinivasaraghavan was elevated to the position of the managing director of Sundaram Finance. His focus was to move the company from being a pure-play commercial vehicle financing firm to a full-range vehicle financing company.
