To head an organisation in the midst of a major solvency crisis and to leave it when punters are betting on it as the next best thing, you need more than luck. Riding the rising economy wave, RM Malla, who ended his tenure at IFCI earlier this month, left the organisation at, what many call, ‘a period of dawn’. In his new role as the chairman of Sidbi, he has to increase credit access to SMEs by giving the bank a strategic direction. When Mr Malla joined IFCI in 2001, it was reeling under the effect of bad lending in the late 90s. He had to run the organisation, yet was mandated not to lend. The FI found its feet again after a major restructuring of proposals that took shape during Mr Malla’s tenure. His former colleagues describe him as a good team leader, who was astute. “He could cut across all levels of hierarchy, and communicate,” says one of them. Some describe Mr Malla as having skills of a trader. He was instrumental in fund raising activities, and could sacrifice his self pride for the sake of the organisation, they say.
The wheel of fortune turned for IFCI, on the back of a property boom. Apart from real estate, the all-powerful security enforcement law, which allows lenders and owners of bad loans to acquire the borrowers’ assets, have helped IFCI re-price itself. Each of these bad loans can unlock real estate worth thousands of crores of rupees, capturing mind space of investors. Mr Malla was lucky to be at the helm of affairs during this phase. But this MBA graduate from the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University, is sometimes criticised for not giving direction to IFCI over the past six years, when the morale of its employees remained low and bred listlessness. “Maybe, he is moving away at the right time,” says a colleague.
Mr Malla, started his professional career as a probationary officer in Syndicate Bank in 1975, where he handled various areas of core commercial banking like resource mobilisation, advances to small industries and foreign exchange. He switched gears to developmental banking when he joined IDBI in the middle management cadre in December 1979. During the two decades that followed, he held responsibilities in various capacities at the head office and branches, including business development, treasury & funding, corporate finance, accounts, merchant banking, human resources and administration. He subsequently rose to the position of executive director of IDBI. He joined IFCI in 2001 after he took voluntary retirement from IDBI. He joins Sidbi at a time when SMEs are facing a number of challenges including raising resources at competitive rates. His job will involve increasing Sidbi’s branch network to reach out to SME clusters, tying up with other banks and institutions for channel financing arrangements, co-financing and developing innovative products for the SME clients, besides managing portfolio of ailing State Finance Corporations.