Explained: How the Kerala-based CSB Bank made a dramatic turnaround

What accounts for the turnaround of CSB, set up in 1920 to serve the Syrian Christian community in Kerala, when its peers are struggling? It was the years of adversity that strengthened it

In 2016, if you had asked investors to put money in CSB Bank (formerly Catholic Syrian Bank), they may have said jokingly that they would do so for charity. In March 2015, CSB had filed for an IPO to raise Rs 400 crore, but the plan was shelved for lack of interest. In 2017, CSB tried — and failed — to raise money from various investors, including private equity.

Today, a less than a year since it listed on December 4, 2019, its market cap is more than the combined valuation of its southern private banking peers. Its H1 PAT