SWIFT India appoints Arundhati Bhattacharya as Chairman of Board

SWIFT India Domestic Services Private Limited (“SWIFT India”) announced that Ms. Arundhati Bhattacharya has been appointed as the new Chairman of the Board.

SWIFT India is a joint venture of top Indian public and private banks and SWIFT S.C.R.L, created to deliver high quality domestic financial messaging services to the Indian financial community.

Ms. Bhattacharya will succeed Mr. M V Nair, who is stepping down after completing a very impactful tenure of five years with the company. Mr. Nair has been instrumental in the formation of the joint venture and thereafter through meaningful engagement in bringing the financial community closer to SWIFT India. He played an active role in furthering the trade digitisation agenda that will provide significant benefits to the community in the long run.

“It has been a fulfilling journey with SWIFT India which is a unique venture on many counts. I would like to thank everyone associated in building this venture from scratch. I welcome Ms. Bhattacharya to take over from here and I am sure that SWIFT India will scale newer heights under her leadership,” said Mr. Nair.

“I take pleasure in joining SWIFT India as the Chairman of the Board. The venture has a huge potential to contribute significantly to the financial community in many domains. Mr. Nair has already contributed a lot in bringing SWIFT India to this position and my endeavours would be to further the goals,” said Ms. Bhattacharya.

Kiran Shetty, CEO of SWIFT India said, “We welcome Ms Bhattacharya as Chairman of the Board at SWIFT India. I look forward to working with her closely and am sure that her enriching experience will help SWIFT India reach greater heights. It has been an impeccable journey so far with Mr Nair and we are thankful to him for all his contribution.”

Ms. Bhattacharya has 40 years of rich experience in India’s financial sector working across varied roles in diverse national and international locations. During her four years tenure as the first-ever woman Chairman of State bank of India, a Fortune 500 company, she has stamped her imprint on the financial world. She has expertise and deep understanding of all aspects of banking spanning the domains of credit, forex, treasury, retail operations, mergers and acquisitions besides the capital and bond markets.

She is credited with upscaling the Bank’s technology initiatives in order to give this 212-year-old largest bank of India (22% market share) a digital edge that has been acknowledged by Industry as path breaking. Forbes magazine ranked her 25th in their list of “Most Powerful Women in the World and 5th in “The Most Powerful Women in Finance” category in 2016.