Standard Chartered on Tuesday named Zarin Daruwala, ICICI Bank’s head of wholesale banking, its India CEO.
Zarin will take over from Anurag Adlakha, who was serving as acting CEO after Sunil Kaushal was named to head Standard Chartered’s Africa and Middle East businesses during a revamp of operations announced in July. Adlakha is also the CFO of StanChart in India.
Zarin will be based in Mumbai and report to Ajay Kanwal, regional CEO for ASEAN and South Asia.
Kanwal said Zarin has more than 25 years of experience in the banking industry and proven ability to deliver superior financial performance.
Earlier this month, Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters had announced plans to cut 15,000 jobs and raise $5.1 billion by selling new shares as part of a revamp to restore profitability after three years of falling profits.
Zarin will be among a handful of women CEOs in Indian banking. She joins State Bank of India chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya, ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochchar and Axis Bank CEO Shikha Sharma in the list.
Zarin will be the third ICICI Bank executive to head a bank in India, after Kochchar, Sharma and Kalpana Morparia, who now heads JP Morgan in India.
A chartered accountant and company secretary, Zarin joined as president of the wholesale banking group at ICICI Bank in July 2010. She has led teams in corporate banking, project finance, structured finance, financial institutions, government and public sector banking, and also built ICICI’s rural and agri-finance offerings.
