WHEN DEBADATTA CHAND pronounces the name of his hometown, B-a-l-a-n-g-i-r (Balangir), he smiles gently, as if correcting a long-standing misunderstanding around the name of this small district in western Odisha, a place he calls home where “government service,” during his growing years, was seen as the ultimate career goal.

Having grown up in a middle-class household — his father was a state government employee, his mother a homemaker, and a few uncles were in banking — Chand’s career path was unidirectional. “Nothing was planned. You just applied for competitive exams... wherever you got through... that’s where you went,” says Chand, who took over the top job at Bank of Baroda in July 2023.

A graduate in agricultural engineering from Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, Mumbai beckoned in 1994, landing him his first job at the Stock Holding Corporation of India. But he soon found his true calling in finance, joining Allahabad Bank later that year.

Chand soon found himself drawn to treasury. “When I started in ’94, treasuries were small units. The market had just opened up after the Narasimham Committee reforms. We were learning everything, right from government securities, money markets, understanding risk and so forth,” recalls Chand, sitting out of his 9th floor office at the bank’s HQ in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex.

His early years in treasury taught him to see banking as a real-time construct, where every macroeconomic event had a concurrent impact. “I realised early that treasury work makes you look at the economy as a whole. I call myself an applied economist: not by degree, but by practice,” says Chand.

Chand’s early years in banking were shaped by what he calls the “functional backbone” of the business: risk, treasury, and credit. From the dealing rooms of Allahabad Bank to his stint at SIDBI learning project finance, he built what he terms a “360° understanding” of banking.

When he moved to Punjab National Bank (PNB) in 2005, he deepened that learning, rising to head its Mumbai Zone, one of the biggest for PNB. “If you’re strong in treasury, risk, and credit, your decision-making becomes sharper,” says Chand.

By the time he joined BoB, as executive director in 2021 and later as MD and CEO, Chand was clear about what leadership meant to him: “You must walk the talk. Be true to yourself and to others. People will follow if they trust your intent.”

His favourite example is from within the bank’s own corridors. “We run one of the largest corporate books among banks: Around ₹4 lakh crore in domestic corporate loans and another ₹2.1 lakh crore international,” he says. To sustain such a large book, sanctioning must happen at every level — branch, region, zone — not just at headquarters. “We told our people: exercise your power judiciously but exercise it. Don’t wait for Delhi or Mumbai. Take ownership.”

When Chand took over, Bank of Baroda was at a crossroads. Its digital platform BoB World had faced regulatory scrutiny, and the organisation was adjusting to new expectations in a post-pandemic, tech-driven world. Chand reorganised internal processes to create faster decision-making loops, invested heavily in employee capacity-building, and used technology to streamline risk and credit functions.

But what truly differentiates BoB under Chand is its international business. “When I first handled the international portfolio in 2021,” he says, “it was about 11-12% of the total book. Today, it’s around 16–17%, and its profit contribution is even higher.”

He attributes that rise to a sharper business mix: global loan syndications, better liability management, and stricter asset quality. “Our international return on asset was 0.3% then; it’s 1.7% now,” he says with quiet pride. “That’s in line with returns on the domestic business.”

Under Chand, the bank’s net profit grew from ₹18,767 crore to ₹20,716 crore in FY25. Deposits, the bedrock of banks, grew 10.1% to ₹14.96 lakh crore, with domestic deposits at ₹12.42 lakh crore. BoB’s global business is now ₹27.9 lakh crore, underscoring its stature as one of India’s banking giants.

The bank’s RAM (retail, agriculture, MSME) portfolio, Chand’s strategic focus area, is now 63.2% of total domestic advances. The mortgage portfolio alone now accounts for 65% of retail advances, reflective of BoB’s conservative but steady approach.

At the same time, asset quality has continued to improve. Gross NPAs stood at 2.8%, down from 3.3% a year ago, while net NPAs fell to 0.6%, among the lowest in the PSU segment. Return on assets (RoA), a key metric of efficiency, came in at 1.1%, and return on equity (RoE) at 17.5%, reflecting a fundamentally strong balance sheet.

Chand has watched Indian banking evolve from ledger books to neural networks and in the coming years, he sees the sector as entering a mature phase. “Banks are expanding beyond banking into financial services. That’s the next leap.”

On the corporate versus retail debate, he’s pragmatic. “Corporate lending isn’t over,” he says firmly. “It’s just evolving. Consumption is driving private investment—and as India moves towards Viksit Bharat 2047, there’s huge scope.” He lists renewables, data centres, and value-added manufacturing as the new growth engines. “These are capital-efficient but critical for the next growth phase.”

While there has been concerns on deposit mobilisation, Chand is candid about change: “There are two reasons that we studied — one, there is a change in the preference of depositors putting money into deposits; some of them are looking for higher rates, and are getting into capital markets and other investments. [Second], although liquidity in the CASA market is tight and growth is less, liquidity is available in the system, but more in the wholesale market than in retail. So, SA (savings account) will grow at a pace of around 6.5-7%. That’s natural in a maturing economy.”

For banks, besides liability products, the only other lever to control costs is to keep margins from shrinking, and it’s no different for BoB. The real game now is the cost-to-income ratio.