Meet Atul Jain, the chief architect behind Bajaj Housing Finance’s success

His name is Atul Jain, a Bajaj veteran for decades. 

The 52-year-old Jain began his career in investment banking and capital market, working as a project executive at PNB Capital Services Limited and later with Prudential Capital Markets Limited. His big move was to Bajaj Group in 2002 where he has stayed since then. 

That paid rich dividends in his career graph as Jain is not the typical MBA graduate from IIM or Harvard; he completed his business education at Punjabi University, Patiala. 

Started working as a branch manager over two decades ago in Lucknow for Bajaj Finance, Jain rose from the ranks to head the housing arm. Bajaj Finance is making headlines with its Rs 6,560 crore IPO, which has set a new record with oversubscriptions reaching Rs 3.24 lakh crore in bids. The money from IPO will be used for organic growth. 

The biggest challenge in the lending business is maintaining strong collections and keeping NPAs low. Jain successfully led the development of a best-in-class low-ticket collections model within the BFSI industry. By implementing a field-centric approach, he was able to significantly reduce losses and improve overall performance.

Jain comes with over three decades of experience in the non-banking space. In fact, he is passionate about building organisations from scratch. That's the reason he was brought in from Bajaj's finance to housing arm some six years ago. In the last six years, he has been the man executing the housing arm's strategy and its CEO and MD. 

Atul has played a key role in spearheading the company's significant asset growth since its inception. Over the past three years, the company has achieved compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 31 per cent in assets under management (AUM). The company has reported a net profit of Rs 1,731 crore for FY24, marking a 38 per cent year-on-year increase, while net income grew by 34 per cent to Rs 7,618 crore during the same period

Under Atul’s leadership, Bajaj Housing Finance emerged as one of the top private mortgage player among HFCs in India.

Bajaj Finserv chairman, Sanjiv Bajaj, recently said that the Group is building the 'HDFC of the future' through Bajaj Housing Finance. This is entirely possible, as the Pune-headquartered group has the financial resources, management bandwidth, and synergies through its retail NBFC arm, along with the opportunity created by HDFC Ltd’s exit from the housing finance space after merging with its banking platform, HDFC Bank. 

While the market potential is huge, challenges remain, particularly as banks with access to low-cost funds have an advantage over Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) or NBFCs.

Jain aims to build an industry relevant mortgage player in 3-4 years’ time. The company provides various loan options including home loans, loans against property, and construction finance. 

Mastering the three pillars of success - lending, risk management, and collections - Jain is strategically guiding the company's growth trajectory. He honed these skills in 16 years when was part of  Bajaj Housing Finance. Jain's extensive career includes 11 years as chief collection officer, 4 years as President of rural lending & collections, and 2 years as the Enterprise Risk Officer, showcasing his diverse leadership roles within the company.

Jain's term is for 5 years, ending April, 2027. 

In 2022, Jain's induction into board came under regulatory lens. The company had appointed Jain as an additional director without getting prior approval from the RBI, which is required by their rules. The company explained that since Jian was already the CEO, this wasn’t a management change, so no permission was needed. 

However, RBI sent a notice in August 2023, asking why approval wasn’t sought from the regulator. It responded, but RBI still imposed a penalty in February 2024.