Vaidyanathan V

Vaidyanathan (Vaidya) aspires to build a world-class Bank in India founded on the principles of Ethical, Digital, and Social Good Banking. To achieve this, he acquired an NBFC and converted it into a Bank by merging it with IDFC Bank. Earlier, he joined ICICI in 2000 and built its retail banking business from inception to ₹1 trillion in deposits and ₹1.35 trillion in retail loans and took it to 1,411 branches. Recognising his contribution, the ICICI Bank appointed him to the Board of the Bank at age 38.In 2010, he left ICICI and acquired 10% stake in a small NBFC worth ₹780 crore ($140m), by pledging his home and the acquired shares as collateral. He then built it into a retail NBFC with tech-led underwriting, demonstrated Proof of Concept to Private Equity players and secured PE backing of Rs. 800 cr ($140m) in 2012. He renamed it Capital First, and became its Chairman & CEO.In eight years, from 2010 to 2018, he grew the retail book from ₹94 crore ($14m) to ₹29,600 crore ($4b), with 7 m customers and turned it from ₹30 crore loss to ₹358 crore profit. Capital FIRST market cap increased 10x from Rs. 780 crore to ₹8,200 crore ($1b) in this period.In 2017, he sold part of his stake in Capital FIRST to square the leverage buyout loan.Then, to convert Capital FIRST into a Bank, he merged it with IDFC Bank, and took over as MD & CEO of the merged entity, renamed as IDFC FIRST Bank, in December 2018.Since then, to September 2025, deposits have risen 6x from ₹38,455 crore ($4.6b) to ₹2,84,453 crore ($31.1b) and loans & advances by 3X to ₹2,90,278 crore ($31.8b). CASA grew from 8.6% to 49.8%, and NIM rose from 1.6% to 5.9%. The Bank turned from a loss of ₹1,944 crore in FY19 to Rs. 1636 crores FY 26.He raised ₹21,000 crore of equity in six issues from FY21 to FY26 to to help convert the Financial Institution IDFC from an infrastructure lending company to a large Universal Bank and tripled the Bank’s networth from Rs. 15,323 crore to ₹45,395 crore. All four Credit Rating agencies have upgraded the Bank twice, from AA- to AA+.He and his organization have been recognized as Digital Bank of the Year 2025 by Financial Express, Banker of the Year 2023 by Financial Express, E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year 2022 for Financial Services, CNBC Awaaz Entrepreneur of the Year 2020, Most Inspirational Leveraged Management Buyout 2018, and Most Innovative Company 2017 by CNBC Asia.He has also received awards twice from India’s Finance Minister, in 2023 and 2024, and from the Home Minister in 2025.