[ G C L E G E N D | V I R A J K U L K A R N I ]
With a three-decade career encompassing various responsibilities along the transaction chain both in India and Europe , Viraj Kulkarni founded the ever-expanding Pivot Management Consultancy , which he runs from its Mumbai headquarters .
How did you first get involved with the securities services industry ? Was it by design or by accident ? That is an interesting question . I would say more accidental than design ! Thirty-two years ago , I entered the capital market through a three-month internship with StockHolding , the then largest custodian in India . I didn ’ t know what custodians did . I said , “ Okay , I ’ m going to be here for three months , let me understand this , and then go look for a job .” All I was interested in was the three-month internship that I needed to complete as part of my training to become a qualified company secretary . My first job soon after my internship was working for the BSE , then the largest stock exchange in India . I was head of investor services and we would try to see how the market issues relating to institutional investors could be resolved . One of my responsibilities was resolving market issues which involved custodians . So almost every custodian ’ s head of operations would meet up with me . I would sit with them to understand custody and how it worked , though my responsibility was more resolving market infrastructure issues ! The third part of the journey came when I joined Morgan Stanley and set up its broking operations in India . Morgan Stanley used to trade for a lot of foreign investors and one of my responsibilities was the operational aspects of the interaction between the broker and the custodian . The fourth part of the story began when I joined Citibank custody . That involved getting into the thick of custody , understanding the product and everything that goes with it . Every stage was a discovery . The fifth part , setting up PIVOT to advise in the custody space , is hopefully the discovery , because I never thought I would ever set up PIVOT . We were the first to set up a custody consultancy in India . So that was another phase of discovery . Every stage of the journey has involved an interesting
Legend
VIRAJ KULKARNI
Global Custodian speaks to Viraj Kulkarni about his journey from custody intern to running a multi-market consultancy .
discovery . Who knows what the next discovery will be ? Just like I never thought I would be in custody when I was a five-year-old and my dream was to join the police !
By the way you describe it , there is a logical progression there . You weren ’ t falling from one job into another just by chance . Well , there was an element of chance because , as I said , I wanted to complete an internship just to get my degree as a qualified company secretary . I knew StockHolding was a company in the capital market . I didn ’ t know anything beyond that . I was just keen to get my degree . Interning with StockHolding was an accident . When I was at BSE , I never thought I would get into broking . When I was in broking , I never thought I would get to work as a custody country head . Joining Citibank as country manager was an accident . That was my first job directly in the world of securities services as head of custody . So again , that was an accident .
After having worked in Citibank in India and Switzerland , JP Morgan and BNP Paribas , the business area became a sort of passion . PIVOT was not something that I had thought about . It came about after some discussion with my family . That was eight years ago . Thus , this too was accidental . But look at it today , eight years on , we are the largest consulting company in Asia . We are doing projects in Europe and Middle East too . So , I think in that sense , I ’ m looking forward to more accidents happening !
Over your time in the industry what do you see as the biggest changes ? The big change in my mind is the industry has moved from being principally responsible for clearing and settlement to being now what we can rightly call wealth protectors . As economies grow our clients create wealth , but they look to us to help protect their wealth . I think we should call ourselves wealth protectors and be proud of it . This besides the other often discussed developments in the industry .
72 Global Custodian Fall 2022