R Venkataraman, MD & Co-Promoter of IIFL Group is "Business World Best CEO"

For R. Venkataraman, co-founder and MD of IIFL Holdings, growth opportunities in the area of financial services is huge. Reason? Abysmally low penetration in the financial services sector that includes formal banking, insurance, credit or even wealth management.

The Mumbai-headquartered IIFL Holding earlier known as India Infoline is focused on bringing a gamut of financial services products � be it housing finance, wealth management, brokerage or property advisory consultancy to name a few.

The company, which was set up in 1995 has already expanded beyond the Indian boundaries to countries such as Singapore, Canada, UK and US and today has a consolidated networth of over Rs 45 billion, according to its official website.

The company founded by Nirmal Jain and Venkataraman, has grown from a small outfit to becoming an integrated financial services provider. It was the first to launch the 5paisa trading platform. That offered the lowest brokerage in the industry. Venkataraman on several occasions has said that the company�s strength lies in its ability to continuously innovate and reinvent and this is evident from the fact that the company has evolved from being a start-up to a full bloom diversified financial services group. Naturally the journey would not have been possible without constant reinvention and adaptation with ever changing business and regulatory dynamics.

The company boasts off having 1,400 branches with over 40 lakh customers. Besides, it has a staff strength of 15,000.

In February, the company announced its plans to demerge its finance, wealth and capital business into three separate verticals, which will be eventually listed separately on the bourses.

This is part of the company�s strategy to reorganise the corporate structure in a changing business environment as organisation now sharply focus on their expertise in niche verticals.

Earlier, Venkataraman, in an interview to a media outlet, said that he, along with Jain, were here for the long haul. While the two promoters would stay on, the day-to-day activities would be run by professional CEOs after the restructuring, he had said.