Riding the India wave

The formation of yet another non-banking finance company in India could hardly be an exciting piece of news, but when it is backed by Anshuman Jain, the maverick India-born former co-CEO of one of Europe’s oldest and most venerable bank, it is bound to attract attention.

So, when the news came that the 53year-old former chief of Deutsche Bank is investing in a new NBFC floated by his former colleague Bhupinder Singh, who until a year ago was Deutsche’s co-head of corporate banking and securities in Asia Pacific, it created its desired share of buzz.

Born in Jaipur, Jain became the cohead of Deutsche Bank in 2012 along with Juergen Fitschen. But even before assuming the top position, he was a force to be reckoned with. After all, the corporate and investment banking arm that he headed at the bank contributed more than 70 per cent of its net income in 2010. Jain’s 2010 earning of ^12 million was far more than that of then CEO Josef Ackermann’s ^8.8 million. Jain had joined the bank’s securities business in 1995 and his rise was meteoric. By 2004, he was the head of the global corporate and investment banking business, turning the Deutsche brand into a global investment banking behemoth.

There was little doubt as to who would succeed Ackermann. But many say Jain’s less-than-desired proficiency in speaking German caused him to share his position with Fitschen. Purists were also alarmed that concentrating all powers into the hands of Jain could take the bank away from its roots of a conservative lender.

However, the co-CEO’s rein was cut short after the US and UK authorities fined the bank heavily in a benchmark rate fixing scandal. A number of other litigations, coupled with the sharp dip in the bank’s profits, led shareholders to clamour for the resignation of the coCEOs. Jain resigned from the bank in June 2015 but was later absolved of any charges of wrongdoing.

In many ways, Jain’s investment in India is not surprising. “India’s potential is incredible,” Jain said in an interview with Prannoy Roy of NDTV in January 2015. The country doesn’t even need to attract foreign capital, but channelising the domestic savings into the infrastructure sector would see the country enjoy a great growth rate for the next 10 years, he said.

An avid cricket lover, Jain was once a part-owner of the Mumbai Indians IPL team. In football-loving Germany, where cricket is almost unheard of, Jain wrote an ode to the cricket World Cup in the February 2011 issue of Newsweek. He was mocked in Germany for that, but Jain remained unfazed as he always wore his passion for cricket on his sleeve.

Jain is also a vocal campaigner for tiger conservation. But what if he was not a banker? He would rather be a journalist. Not for television, but on the print side, he confessed in the interview.

Bhupinder Singh, who will head the new NBFC focussed on education, housing and SME loans, is also a Deutsche Bank veteran with an equally impressive career track. Singh was named the cochief of corporate banking and securities in Asia-Pacific in 2013 after serving as the region head of various verticals.

An Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad) graduate, Singh is known for his business building efforts in the bank and worked with Jain closely in London for nearly a decade from 2000 to 2009.