A BOOK REVIEW

ON

“IF GOD WAS A

BANKER”

SUBMITTED TO-: SUBMITTED BY-:

Mrs. Vaneeta Aggarwal Ankur Bhargava
MBA-IB(1)

1
Contents Page No.

Introduction 03

Summary 04-07

What I learnt from the book 08

2
 INTRODUCTION
The author of this book is RAVI SUBRAMANIAN, an alumnus of IIM BANGALORE ,
batch of 1993 is currently working with a leading foreign bank in its retail banking unit ,
he has worked with various MNC banks and now lives n Mumbai.
This book is about two young management graduates, with nothing in similar in family
back grounds and temperament join NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL BANK on the
same day and take entirely different routes at breakneck speed the fast and aggressive
Sundeep, who will stoop to anything to get ahead and the mature and sensible Swami
with a high regards for good old ETHICS. The racy narrative set in the high pressure
milieu of competitive banking carries the undercurrent clash of values in the intermeshed
realms of the personal and the professional. This is a story peppered with ambition and
frustration, deceit and malevolence and the desperate struggle for the status and power.
And above all there is a top notch banker ADITYA who plays the benevolent god
whenever the crisis looms over the young guys.
It more reads like a rise and fall of an empire. The two contrast ways people grow, the
ways they adopt to reach top and succeed.
The killer in Sundeep and the tolerance in Swami if taken in right proportions would be
the best recipee for success!!! The evolution of the retail banking and the retail assets, the
BPO gives lot of insight to the way the business is done in MNC banks, the way the
Management graduates approach the challenge makes them different from the mass.
The book takes you into the realms of Multinational banks. It revolves around two main
characters SWAMI & SANDEEP, both smart & brilliant products of IIM, one is from a
poor & other from a middle class background.

3
SUMMARY:-
To err is human and to forgive is divine
The story is about the gradual development of various banking services & products in the
country, the manipulation the unwary public are subjected to. The dishonesty of fund
managers & greed of bankers in booking easy profits etc.Ravi subramaniam has a simple
narrative style & is himself a career banker
With a MNC bank.
The story revolves around the two young men SWAMI AND SUNDEEP. It was the
occasion of convocation of 1986 for the outgoing batch of IIM BANGALORE ,
RATAN TATA was handling the degrees to eh students. SUNDEEP was the winner of
director’s gold medal for best student award in that batch.
SUNDEEP was hired by the NEW YORK BANK .Another person SWAMINATAHN
an IIM AHEMDABAD pass out was also hired by the same bank. It was there first day in
the bank and both were before the scheduled time .That was the first time met each other
at the bench outside the building, they had brief introduction of each other. SWAMI was
more a simple man in front of dynamic and dashing personality of SUNDEEP.
ADITYA was the head of retail banking of NYB in India that time, the day started with
Aditya addressing all the new employees of the bank. After the programme Aditya called
Sundeep in his cabin Adiya asked Sundeep about his indiscipline behavior during his
speech, Sundeep apologized for his behavior. A retail banking strategy was given to
every body who joined the bank, Aditya asked Sundeep about his views on that. Sundeep
was personally against the new policy of bank about the launching of the credit cards he
was of different view; he said that bank should first launch short run, products and
services that are supported by the available technology and systems. He was of the view
of launching car loans first rather than launching credit cards so as to build the customer
base, leading the market and also getting revenues from it. Aditya was very impressed by
the suggestions of Sundeep .
Sundeep was one of those persons who know how to turn things into his favor. Swami on
other hand was a humble being with a deep intellect and a clear thought process.
Sundeep was more aggressive in his approach and was quick to seize any opportunities
that come his way. Next day Mr Brian told Aditya that during Induction programme two
people Swami and Kalpana was of the same view as Sundeep, Aditya had meeting with
all the three person and agreed on launching the car loans.
Swami and Kalpana were given the charge of launching the loans for the two wheelers
while Sundeep was in charge of car loans. Aditya gave them 90 days deadline to launch
the products. Sundeep, who had to launch car loans, visited every single car dealer in the
town .He also started making rounds of car manufacturers for exclusive financial tie ups.
Sundeep convinced the manufacturers that they would be able to double their sales if
easy financing options which NYB was willing to offer was bundled with sales.
On other hand Swami and kalpana started visiting large corporate and public sector units
for cash loans to their employees. The two businesses were hit from the start. Swami and
Kalpana made a new deal with HERO HONDA COMPANY which agreed to an
exclusive two year all India arrangement for the financing of hero Honda two wheelers

4
with NYB. Whereas Sundeep had managed a tie up with MARUTI SUZUKI for car
financing.
Swami and Sundeep become hot commodities in the global community of NYB. Their
business was on a roll. On one fine day Aditya called up both swami and Sundeep, he
told them that he is quitting NYB. Both were shocked to listen this .Aditya told them that
he will be starting his own business and turning it into a successful venture.
Suneel was their new country head for the retail banking in the country. Swami didn’t
like Suneel so his first impression on suneel was not that good, on other hand Sundeep’s
introduction to Suneel was different .The slick Sundeep managed his first meeting
brilliantly, impressing Suneel and oozing positive energy. Suneel was more impressed by
Sundeep rather than Swami.
Swami was not happy with his current boss as he was still not able to accept that Aditya
is quitting.
Before Aditya gave his charge over to Suneel, Swami requested Aditya to shift him to
some other unit as he was not willing to work under Suneel. Swami was very emotional.
Aditya moved Swami to a plum role in treasury. Sundeep would do anything to please
Suneel.
In the next few years many other banks also got into loan business. But given their long
history as deposit gatherers, with limited exposure to lending, they were extremely
conservative in their approach .In this scenario, NYB made a breakthrough by pioneering
a concept called DSAs direct selling agents. The DSAs worked for a fee as intermediaries
between the customer and the bank.
Suneel introduced Sundeep to RAM NARESH who was chartered accountant in collated
and to become a home loans DSAs for NYB.
This was how Sundeep first met Ram naresh. Ram .naresh told Sundeep that he knew
JOSEPH FERNANDIS who is the vice president of NYB and he recommended Suneel’s
name to get the highest post in India. Sundeep thought that Ram naresh can also do
wonders to his career if he managed to impress Ram naresh. Naresh wanted NYB to
cover the cost of setting up his DSA. Naresh explained various benfits to Sundeep . His
friendship with Naresh had begun. Naresh wanted to set up a call centre for NYB and
explained the entire deal. According to deal Naresh will invest in this call centre and
Sundeep will give the business and Naresh will manage the complete customer service
for NYB. Sundeep agreed for the deal. Riding on Naresh, Sundeep’s equation with
Suneel were on a high.
Some how Swami got know about the growing relationship of Sundeep with Naresh,
Swami warned Sundeep to stop all his deals with Naresh. Sundeep didn’t like this at all
and also deep inside his heart he didn’t like Swami because he was the only one in the
bank who was giving Sundeep the tough competition. Sundeep asked Naresh to take care
of Swami.
After few days Swami came with the news of his nomination for ITDP
(INTERNATIONAL TALENT DISCOVERY PROGRAMME) .Sundeep didn’t like of
his nomination. ITDP was the biggest opportunity to enhance his career
prospectives.young talent from across the globe would be nominated for this programme
and would undergo training in NEWYORK, which would prepare future leaders. But
Swami got his nomination because it was all set by Ram naresh as Swami was interfering

5
in his work. Ram naresh spoke to JOSEPH FERNANDES who in turn had spoken to
SUNEEL to nominate Swami.
Both sundeep and Swami were high on intellect. But Sundeep was a leader of men, who
would inspire people to do tasks where as Swami was a doer. Sundeep was a transactor,
while Swami was the strategist. The two heroes of NYB were charting their own course
in their own ways across the continents. One was busy creating a name for himself in
ITDP and other was imprinting his name in the annals of retail banking in this country.
Over the next decade NYB became the largest foreign banks in India. After a very
successful stint in the assets business Sundeep moved as the Head of the branch banking.
Sundeep was considered as the king of banking. He brought out innovative lending
products, which were almost always, but very cunningly bank friendly and customer
unfriendly.
After spending six years in various roles Sundeep was finally made deputy head of retail
banking in India. Sundeep was sent to LONDON to head the NRI business based there.
On other hand Swami topped the ITDP course. Swami moved traveled through out the
world to do business for NYB. He was very successful. After some time Swami returned
to India as head distribution for NYB in India .All this while Sundeep was in London
firmly in saddle as head of the NRI business.
Sundeep was next promoted to the post of Head of retail banking in India. Swami was
shocked to see his omission .But it was all credited to Naresh who was responsible for
Sundeep in getting this post. Next was the business of BPO was setup in India. Swami
was moved to this business .he turned into the gold.on other hand Sundeep was pressing
every body to meet the targets after he became the head of the retail banking in India. He
was very harsh towards his colleagues he would make them to work like a machine.
Sundeep was becoming meaner day by day as success had gone to his head.
Around the same time CITIBANK started revamping its retail business and started
investing in India .They started eating into the NYB’S market share rapidly and in less
than a year’s time they overtook NYB in all the as aspects of the business. This was bad
news for Sundeep. He pushed the people to work for long hours and pushed people to sell
as much of these products as they could. Sundeep launched a new policy of investing in
MUTUAL FUNDS. In some customer cases their money was moved from fixed deposits
to mutual funds to generate quick revenue with out the notification of the customers. soon
NORTH KOREA tested a nuclear bomb, America made noises about launching a
military attack on NORTH KOREA. This had severe effect on share market.The entire
Asian markets tumbled and India was no exception. The sensex fall over 400 points on a
single day.So the money that the bank invested in mutual funds was gone , soon the
customers got to know about this scam. Newspaper carried banner headlines “NYB
wealth managers caught in a major fraud rampant forgery of customer’s signatures. Due
to this NYB lost their loyal customer base also , for this Sundeep was responsible he tried
everything to curb this whole issue but all in vain.
So it was decided to move Sundeep as head of retail banking in London, while Swami
was the new head of retail baking in India. At last Swami’s dreams come true through
sheer hardwork an honesty. Soon Swami brought back the business back on track.
Swami was hailed as a visionary, a balanced business builder an honest professional with
great values. After the mutual fund fraud, the rating of the India business was changed to

6
high risk and the global audit team decided to visit India. Global audit was a very serious
exercise, which was at times career threatening.
MONA ALBANCE was the head of global audit team that visited India. During her visit
she enquired about almost every thing about NYB. soon she came up with her final report
. there were various complains of Sundeep. Sundeep was called for the meeting with
CEO of the bank. To his surprise Aditya was also there. MONA read out the charges
against sundeep. One of them was the credit of 6 million dollars into Naresh’s account
and the other was a debit of 2 million dollars into his own account after Naresh opened
his own call centre with the help of Sundeep. For a similar volume of personal loans
originated by naresh’s unit and other DSAs, naresh has been paid 5% as professional fees
whereas other have been paid less than 2%.
Sundeep was trapped from all sides , he didn’t know what to do and how to come out of
this situation. He was helpless for the first time in his life with out any solution to come
out of the problem. There were several other charges of fraud he had done in bank. CEO
of the bank asked Sundeep for his resignation letter as he will not be terminated on the
request on Swami and Aditya. Sundeep was also asked to sign that he will not with
anyother oraganisation for next 18 months. Sundeep was in tears and didn’t know what
to do. Aditya then said that he will hire Sundeep. Aditya acted as a GOD for him.
Sundeep didn’t know how to thank Aditya.
So in this way Sundeep tasted the fruit of his own deeds. On other hand Swami worked
Successsfully as a head of retail banking in India.

7
WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE BOOK

I can really feel the competition and pressure in today’s banking by reading through this
book.I get to know the damage that is caused by managers "looking for Performance at
any cost" & the stability and benefits of teams under system driven managers.
It also teaches me that there are no short cuts for success, one has to work hard and
honestly to achieve his goal. The unethical approach will always lead you in trouble. I
recommend this book to those people who are thinking to pursue their career in banking
sector. As this book will help them to understand the envoirnment of working in a bank.
This rule not only apply to the banking sector but one should also follow this in real life.
The story is all about the repletion of the old fact “THAT TRUTH ALWAYS
PREVAILS OVER THE EVIL”.