Debt collector at age 12, C S Setty now chases $20 billion at SBI

Forty-two years later, Setty continues to collect on loans, albeit on a much larger scale.

From the age of 12, Challa Sreenivasulu Setty spent his school vacations collecting debts for his father’s grocery store in the small south Indian village of Potlapadu.

It was harvest season, and Setty would go around the village’s 150 households, recovering money owed by farmers from earlier in the year. He and his brother each had a list of people who owed cash, and would visit them one by one.

“My brother was softer and more popular in the village,” Setty recalled. “So his collections were lower than mine.”

Forty-two years later, Setty continues to collect on loans, albeit on a much larger