After turning the dream of owning a home into reality for millions of Indians in the course of its 45-year journey, Housing Development Finance Corporation has found a home within the family.
Those were the words of HDFC Chairman, 77-year-old Deepak Shantilal Parekh, as he announced the merger of the mortgage financier with HDFC Bank, creating a lending behemoth.
The merger has been speculated about for more than two decades, but is coming to fruition now as regulatory changes have reduced the barrier for an amalgamation.
The proposed merger will enable the underwriting of larger ticket loans, including infrastructure loans – an urgent need of the country.
India’s second-biggest lender will get even bigger, shrinking its gap with the State Bank of India, whose total advances at the end of December 2021 stood at 26.66 trillion rupees.
Meanwhile, on a pro-forma basis, the merged HDFC Bank’s total advances are nearly 17.9 trillion rupees.
Deepak Parekh joined HDFC as a Deputy General Manager in 1978, a year after it was founded by his uncle Hasmukhbhai Parekh. Not only did he leave a plum job at Chase Manhattan Bank, but also took a 50% pay cut then.
Parekh built HDFC into a top housing finance company. Under his leadership, HDFC forayed into areas like banking, asset management, life and general insurance, education finance, and real estate venture capital.
HDFC Bank was born in 1994 and Parekh roped in Aditya Puri to lead it. Puri retired as the MD and CEO of the bank in October 2020.
Known for his outspokenness, Parekh became the go-to man for policymakers. He expressed his views openly, be it on the policies of the government or the Reserve Bank of India.
Parekh also emerged as India’s most authoritative voice when it comes to ethics and best practices in banking, making clean business a cornerstone of how the HDFC group functions.
Deepak Parekh’s reign at the helm of HDFC is scheduled to end soon. He would be ineligible to serve on the bank’s board after the merger, owing to RBI’s rules on age limits.
By bringing HDFC under the fold of HDFC Bank in his final act, Parekh leaves a legacy that will probably be impossible to match in India’s financial services sector.
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 "How life has come full circle for Deepak Parekh?")
