Vaidyanathan V — CEO

Vaidyanathan (Vaidya) is building IDFC FIRST Bank into a world-class Indian Bank founded on the principles of Ethical, Digital, and Social Good Banking. He has the distinction of building an NBFC CAPITAL FIRST, and converting it into a Bank by merging it with an existing Bank, IDFC Bank. He joined ICICI in 2000 and was appointed to the Board of ICICI Bank at age 38. He built the retail banking business at ICICI Bank since it's inception and took it to 1,411 branches, ₹1 trillion in deposits, and ₹1.35 trillion in retail loans. In 2010, he left ICICI and acquired 10% stake in a small NBFC worth ₹780 crore ($140m), pledging his home and the acquired shares as collateral. He then built a tech-driven retail & MSME NBFC, demonstrated early proof of concept to Private Equity players, secured PE backing of Rs. 800 cr, ($140m) in 2012, created Capital First, and became Chairman & CEO. Over eight years, from 2010 to 2018, Capital First’s retail book grew from ₹94 crore ($14m) to ₹29,600 crore ($4b), with 7 m customers. it turned from ₹30 crore loss to ₹358 crore profit and market cap increased 10x to ₹8,200 crore ($1b). In 2017, he sold part of his stake in Capital FIRST to repay the buyout loan and concluded the leveraged buyout. Then, to secure a Banking license for Capital First, he merged it with IDFC Bank, and took over as MD & CEO of IDFC FIRST Bank in December 2018. Since merger to September 2025, deposits rose 6x from ₹38,455 crore ($4.6b) to ₹2,56,799 crore ($30b), loan book grew 2.4x from ₹1,04,660 crore to ₹2,53,233 crore ($30b), CASA grew from 8.6% to 48%, and NIM from 1.6% to 5.8%. The Bank turned from a loss of ₹1,944 crore in FY19 to ₹2,957 crore profit in FY24. in FY 25, PAT fell 49% to ₹1,525 crore due to crisis in MFI industry. He raised ₹21,000 crore of equity in six issues from FY21 to FY26 to strengthen the foundations and tripled the Bank’s networth from Rs. 15,323 crore to ₹45,395 crore to convert IDFC from an infrastructure DFI to a large Universal Bank. All four Credit Rating agencies have upgraded the Bank twice, from AA- to AA+. He and his organization have been recognized as Digital Bank of the Year 2025 by Financial Express, Banker of the Year 2023 by Financial Express, E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year 2022 for Financial Services, CNBC Awaaz Entrepreneur of the Year 2020, Most Inspirational Leveraged Management Buyout 2018, and Most Innovative Company 2017 by CNBC Asia. He has also received awards twice from India’s Finance Minister, in 2023 and 2024, and from the Home Minister in 2025 at award functions.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a Fintech leader with extensive experience in banking and financial services.

Location: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Experience: 35 yrs 11 mos