Thursday July 19, 02:04 AM
Financial services drive salaries north |
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In his 15-year long career as a banker, Rakesh Makkar had never felt so free as he does today. Shedding the label of a high-profile global banker was a tough proposition, but after six months with Future Money, Rakesh is happy about his decision to part ways with First India Credit, a Temasek subsidiary.
"There is more freedom in Indian companies. In a multinational, the dictate is to follow western norms. By the very different nature of the country, there is a lot of room to innovate in Indian companies," says Makkar, CEO of Future Money, Kishore Biyani's financial services. With cash-rich financial services companies scurrying to expand, it is migration season in India's corporate world. And unlike the normal headhunting practice of staying within a sector, Indian financial firms are aggressively poaching from the foreign camp.
Daniel Newman of Deutsche Bank recently joined ADAG's investment banking arm; ex-Citibanker Rajeev Jamkhedkar joined Aegon Religare Life Insurance and Aditya Birla Group appointed Ajay Srinivasan of Prudential as the CEO of their finance services company. In May, India Infoline spent Rs 440 million, nearly twice its January-March quarterly profits, as joining bonuses for four senior executives from CLSA. According to industry estimates, salaries for analysts with up to 10 years' experience have nearly tripled in the last three to five years. So, what is causing this frantic churn in financial services? A bullish stock market is an obvious contributor, but human resource experts point to a severe shortage of human capital.
"Indian financial companies have a lot of cash on their balance sheets. What is not readily available is financial market expertise. Compensation is no longer an issue for domestic firms, and salaries are now comparable with international standards," says K Sudarshan, managing partner of EMA Partners, an executive search firm. And the bull run continues.
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