Tamal Bandyopadhyay: The low-profile high achiever

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could have been a high-profile corporate chief.

A chemical engineer from Kerala University, Leeladhar applied for a management trainee's job in Indian Aluminium when it was planning to set up its Belgaum plant.

But the legendary banker T A Pai, who was heading Syndicate Bank then, lured him away as a trainee officer on a monthly salary of Rs 269 "" roughly a third of what he would have earned in Indian Aluminium. But the engineer did not flounder in the world of finance: his job was to appraise industrial projects for loan disbursals.

After 11 years with Syndicate Bank at Manipal, Leeladhar moved to Mangalore when he joined Corporation Bank in 1980, and stayed there till he was appointed executive director of Bank of Maharashtra in 1996.

At 49, Leeladhar was probably one of the youngest executive directors in India's state-run banking industry. But it proved a short stint. Eighteen months later, he became chairman and managing director of the Bangalore-based Vijaya Bank. By 2000, he shifted to Mumbai, centre of Indian banking, to head Union Bank of India.

The noteworthy point about his career is that Leeladhar is possibly the only bank chairman never to work in a bank branch. His big break came when he took Union Bank public in 2002. That completed an agenda begun in Vijaya Bank that he readied for an initial public offering but was transferred to Union Bank before he could see it through.

Union Bank hit the market at a premium of Rs 6 on a Rs 10 share. Today, it is coveted by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and its price is hovering at Rs 75 after hitting a high of Rs 91 sometime back.

There are good reasons for this showing on the bourses. When Leeladhar signed his first balance sheet as chairman in 1999-2000, Union Bank showed a net profit of Rs 101 crore.

In 2003-04, it posted a net profit of Rs 712 crore. In these four years, the bank's total business (deposits plus advances) more than doubled "" from Rs 43,000 crore to Rs 90,000 crore. It has also made rapid strides in terms of technology. Over 350 Union Bank branches have been integrated, making it the country's largest online bank after Punjab National Bank.

Given that, it is appropriate that as deputy governor of the RBI, Leeladhar will oversee the department of information technology. Rural credit and urban banks will also be in his portfolio.

Although he has worked exclusively at headquarters, Leeladhar is knowledgeable about rural banking because he made it a habit to visit 45 rural branches every year as chairman of Union Bank.

Leeladhar's greatest strength is perhaps his penchant for keeping a low profile. Says a Union Bank employee on condition of anonymity, "He was hands-on but never imposed himself. He valued others' opinion and always favoured the consensus approach."

But when it came to the crunch, the soft-spoken banker could also display steel. "If he is convinced of something, no one can make him change his mind," says the chairman of another public sector bank who has seen Leeladhar at close quarters at meetings of the Indian Banks' Association (IBA). Leeladhar was IBA chairman till he joined RBI last week.

The RBI post had some tough competition. In the fray were Punjab National Bank's S S Kohli, Bank of Baroda's P S Shenoy, Canara Bank's R V Shastry and Central Bank's Dalbir Singh. Nobody is sure what tilted the case in Leeladhar's favour.

One issue could be his age; he is 58 whereas the other three are nearing 60. So Leeladhar will have a four-year stint (till December 2008) and governor Y V Reddy will not have to look for another commercial banker as deputy governor during his tenure. Another reason could be Leeladhar's ability to steer clear of controversy.

By a strange quirk of fate, Syndicate Bank was nationalised a year after he joined the bank in 1968. Corporation Bank was nationalised the month after he joined.

Nationalisation was a watershed event in Indian banking. As deputy governor, Leeladhar will probably get a ringside view of the next phase of Indian banking "" mergers, acquisitions and consolidation.