8 BANKING ON THE UNBANKED

Sanjay Agarwal

MD & CEO AU Small Finance Bank ` 32.5 crore

(2016/17) NA

(2015/16) WITH A ` 32.50 CRORE annual remuneration in 2016/17, Sanjay Agarwal, 47, will make successful, high profile bankers appear poorly paid. A first generation entrepreneur, Agarwal runs the AU Small Finance Bank that serves under-banked and unbanked customers in rural and semi-urban areas. The rise in Agarwal’s package was a mind numbing 906 per cent in 2016/17.

Agarwal had a two decade track record of running a successful non banking finance company , AU Financiers. It became a small finance bank in 2017. The bank made a smashing capital market debut last July and has a valuation of close to ` 20,000 crore. Agarwal’s market wealth is about ` 4,000 crore.

The bank has grown exponentially. Revenues grew at a CAGR of 40 per cent over five years till 2016/17 while profits surged 75 per cent. In 2017/18, it had a total income of ` 2,155 crore and net profit of ` 292 crore.

The annual report says that the compensation for 2016/17 has been inclusive of bonus for the previous year. Without the bonus, the rise would have been only 25 per cent, it says.