The announcement that ICICI Securities (I-Sec) would replace its present MD & CEO Madhabi Puri-Buch, who goes on a sabbatical for personal reasons, with Executive Director Anup Bagchi from May 1 did not come as a surprise to its employees.
Many in the firm believe Bagchi's success at ICICIdirect.com, an online trading arm of ICICI Securities, and his loyalty with the ICICI group make him an obvious choice for the top post at the Mumbai-based financial services firm.
ICICIdirect.com, which has over 2 million retail customers, is among the leaders in online stock broking space in India.
"ICICIdirect is a very tough competitor. It is very aggressive in customer acquisition," said the CEO of a rival firm.
Bagchi, who started his career with ICICI group in 1992, was instrumental in the launch of ICICIdirect in 2000.
During his tenure with the group, Bagchi has held several key positions in retail banking, corporate banking and treasury.
Before joining I-Sec, Bagchi was the head of the international retail banking arm of ICICI Bank. Before that, he had handled retail liabilities and third-party distribution in ICICI Bank.
He is also a director at ICICI Wealth Management Inc (Canada) and ICICI Securities Inc, I-Sec's US subsidiary.
The key challenge for Bagchi, alumni of IIT (Kanpur) and IIM (Bangalore), would be to retain key employees of ICICI Securities and win clients in the fiercely competitive institutional broking and investment banking businesses.
He will also have to find a permanent solution to customer complaints of ICICIdirect website becoming inaccessible during market hours on some occasions, especially on major market moving days.
It would be interesting to see how he fits into the shoes of his high-profile predecessor. His vast experience in capital markets and retail financial services should come in handy.