ICICI Bank CTO Madhivanan resigns, to join IDFC First Bank: Report

Madhivanan Balakrishnan, chief technology officer (CTO) of private-lender ICICI Bank, has resigned and is expected to join IDFC First Bank soon, The Economic Times reported, citing sources.

ICICI Bank is yet to confirm Madhivanan’s resignation. E-mail queries sent to the bank went unanswered. 

It is speculated that Madhi, as the CTO is known in the banking circle, is being roped in to bolster IDFC First Bank’s digital initiatives, something that Madhi has been doing at ICICI Bank. 

IDFC First Bank, which was formed after the merger of IDFC Bank and non-banking financial institution Capital First, will gain from Madhivanan’s addition as all banks look to draw in more customers by improving digital strategies and improve customer experience. 

V Vaidyanathan, the founder of Capital First, has worked with ICICI before. Also, Madhivanan was the executive director at ICICI Prudential Life Insurance when Vaidyanathan served as the CEO and managing director of the same company. 

Both of them have directly served with ICICI Bank for over nine years at several positions. 

Madhivanan, who holds a BSc degree from Mumbai University in Chemistry and an MBA degree from IIM, Calcutta, has worked with companies such as 3i Infotech and Arvind Mills as managing director and head of franchise operations, respectively. 

Last year, during an interaction with TechCircle, Madhivanan had said that ICICI Bank was using new technologies as part of a strategy to bring down the cost-to-income ratio and placing bets on fintech startups.