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A reference to The Federal Bank as an “old private bank” always gets Shyam Srinivasan’s goat. “It implies the bank is not contemporary.” The managing director and chief executive officer of the Aluva (Kerala)-based bank stresses that “it is among the best”. Srinivasan walked into Federal in August 2010 from Standard Chartered Bank (StanChart), where he helmed its retail franchise. “The board was on the lookout for a person. Egon Zehnder contacted me. And I said, yes. That’s it.” This was a phase when an older vintage of private banks sought to set a new flight path. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), too, was keen that these banks were brought up to speed. It gave the nod to Srinivasan, and three others who answered to the same profile Vishwavir Ahuja of RBL (from Bank of America), Murali Natrajan of DCB Bank (StanChart), and P R Somasundaram of Karur Vysya Bank (StanChart-STCI Securities).