MPW 2022: How Padmaja Chundru is turning NSDL into a financial powerhouse

Women are considered to be good at savings but when it comes to investments in stock markets, it’s a different picture. The perception that capital markets are speculative and risky has “probably resulted in low women participation”, says Padmaja Chunduru, MD & CEO of National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL). Indeed. But Chunduru is not a person to shy away from challenges. After a successful and long stint in banking, she decided to take up a new challenge and entered the corner office of NSDL in September 2021.

Chunduru started in a tiny branch of SBI in 1984 and moved up the ranks over the years to become the Country Head of the US operations of the bank. After a journey of 34 years, she moved to Indian Bank to become its MD, wherein she handled a critical operation—Allahabad Bank’s merger with Indian Bank. “After 37 years in banking, moving to the capital markets space… is definitely very interesting. We are witnessing an exponential growth in retail participation in the capital markets now, and this opens up opportunities to launch products and services, riding on technology,” says Chunduru.

A postgraduate in commerce from Andhra University, Chunduru has earlier served as a director on the board of Life Insurance Corporation of India and National Payments Corporation of India.

Interestingly, the career banker is leading NSDL to act as an important catalyst in further fuelling growth by organising outreach programmes in regional languages to “instil a prudent investment culture in the system”.

Meanwhile, with Chunduru at the helm, NSDL has recorded strong growth with net profit for the nine months ended December 31, 2022, at `162.25 crore compared to `140.23 crore a year ago.

Incidentally, Chunduru is leading NSDL at a time when the depository is mulling going public, as its two founding shareholders—IDBI Bank and the NSE—need to reduce their holdings to comply with regulations.

But one can trust Chunduru to take the best possible decision for the organisation.

@ashishrukhaiyar