Ramesh Lakshminarayanan appointed CIO at HDFC Bank

HDFC Bank has appointed Ramesh Lakshminarayanan as its new CIO. He will be serving as group head of IT, spearheading the company’s technology transformation.

In addition to defining HDFC’s technology strategy, Lakshminarayanan has been tasked with strengthening the company’s foundational technology, enhancing its digital capabilities and harnessing the latest in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

In his previous role, Lakshminarayanan served as chief technology and information officer at Credit Rating Information Services of India Ltd. (CRISIL). A veteran technology leader in the BFSI space, he has worked at banking majors such as Citibank India, ABN AMRO Bank, Citigroup and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

In his six-year stint at Citigroup, he played the role of a CISO and was responsible for the technology infrastructure for Citibank and its affiliates in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

His 25-year experience not only includes large banking firms, but startups as well: Lakshminarayanan was the director and co-founder of Pragmatix Services, a business intelligence and analytics startup for banking and financial processes.

Commenting on the new appointment, Bhavesh Zaveri, country head of operations and technology at HDFC Bank, said, “Ramesh brings an interesting blend of professional expertise as well as an entrepreneurial acumen acquired while running a start up.”

Lakshminarayanan shared that he would be “taking a fresh guard” to start a new innings at HDFC. “I hope to utilize my experience and understanding of technology, new digital platforms, data and analytics to ensure that the bank maintains its pole position in leveraging technology,” he added.