For Axis Bank, acquiring the consumer business—loans, credit cards, wealth management and retail banking—of Citi India was a big win as it positioned the country’s third-largest private sector bank (in terms of total assets) for accelerated growth in the premium segment.
The merger of the consumer business of Citi was a huge task for domestic private lender Axis Bank as it meant integrating around 3,200 people into the bank, which already had more than 88,000 employees on its rolls.
The Rs 11,603-crore buy — that Axis Bank completed on March 1, 2023 – brought into its fold the consumer business — loans, credit cards, wealth management and retail banking — of Citibank India, a big win as it positioned the third-largest private sector bank of the country for accelerated growth in the premium segment.
But the integration was indeed a challenging task for the human resources department of the bank especially given the cultural differences that typically exist in a domestic and foreign entity.
Incidentally, the HR team of Axis Bank banked on technology to ensure that the onboarding of Citi employees – around 97 per cent of the Citi consumer business staffers came on board – was as seamless as possible.
The highlight was an app that was designed specifically for the integration and onboarding process and minimal paperwork was involved.
“During the entire onboarding process, paper was hardly used and that I think set the tone for Citi staffers as they were used to seeing physical papers, files, etc,” said Rajkamal Vempati, Head – Human Resources, Axis Bank.
Vempati, who has been with the bank for more than seven years, further added that the app included a lot of FAQs and features to put in a query that could lead to a call back among other things as it was designed only for the onboarding process.
“That was how the entire onboarding process was managed for Citi and it was not only digital but also completely frictionless,” said Vempati, for whose team the integration clearly meant longer that normal working hours for more than a few weeks.
“In any integration we need to recognize that as much it is about embracing the others, it is also about managing our own people. It’s not as if the roles are already there. So, the entire process was collaborative and they saw the intent, they saw the actions,” she said.
This assumes significance for a bank that started operations way back in 1994, promoted by government-owned entities including Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), General Insurance Corporation, National Insurance Company, The New India Assurance Company, United India Insurance Company and the erstwhile UTI.
While integrating the Citi employees is an ongoing journey involving townhall meetings, one-on-one interactions and even a “buddy” system wherein Axis Bank staffers with an earlier stint in Citi helped the new lot come to the fold, the domestic lender has ensured that its HR practices are in sync with the changing times and there is no bias in any manner whatsoever.
“I think the secret sauce for us is the fact that people have been able to settle, assimilate and just adapt, everybody is very, very supportive and helpful,” said Vempati.