ARYSS Knowledge Partners
ARYSS Knowledge Partners
Arpit Agarwal : The Team : About ARYSS

Arpit Agarwal

Arpit Agarwal

The Private Banking career

Arpit is a veteran of the Private Banking industry in India, who successfully conceptualized, launched and built a sizeable Private Banking business, as early as 1993, for DSP Merrill Lynch (1993-1998). As Head of the Private Clients Group at DSP ML, Arpit built considerable brand equity within the Ultra High Networth Individuals space. Post DSP ML, Arpit moved on to replicate his success of setting up a scalable business, for a multi-national French bank, BNP Paribas (1999-2002) to cater to high networth Indians, both resident as well as non-resident, across the globe. Being a banker, this experience involved advising on both the Asset as well as the Liability side of the private clients’ balance sheets and within a short span of two years, the bank’s AUM were in excess of USD 600 million.

In 2002, Arpit took on the challenge to conceptualise, brand and establish a Private Banking offering for ICICI Bank Ltd., India’s largest and fastest growing Private Sector bank (2002-2006). It took Arpit 6 months to build out the product, process and technology platforms and launched the business in August 2002. Within 3 years, the business grew into a 175 city and over 350 branch footprint with AUM in excess of USD 6.5 billion. Notably, Arpit’s efforts were recognised both locally and internationally when ICICI Bank’s Private Banking business was ranked the largest by CLSA in February 2005 and amongst the top 3 in the Asia-Pacific region by Private Banker International in September, 2005.

The Entrepreneurship career

Arpit moved to becoming an entrepreneur in February 2006 and set up from ground zero, a full service financial advisory and intermediation business for the Dawnay Day AV group in India, as the Managing Director & Group CEO for Financial Services. This was a joint venture with Dawnay Day, UK and Alok Vajpeyi with 25% in an Employee Trust, for Arpit and his team. The group obtained a Portfolio Management registration with SEBI and BSE, NSE, CDSL, NSDL registrations. Dawnay Day was also granted an in-principle approval as a sponsor, to set up an Asset Management Company in India.

The JV was targeted at clients across all segments, both in the individual and institutional space and offered a wide range of services like wealth management, stock broking, portfolio management, asset management, real estate advisory, retail distribution and research services. In a short span of three years, the business of Dawnay Day AV, grew to over 1800 people in 8 cities and over 40 branches.

As the MD & Group CEO of Dawnay Day's first and primary business in India, Arpit was given the additional task of replicating the business model in India, as in the UK. This included creating and managing the entire office real estate, mid and back office infrastructure for all the businesses of the group in India. This ensured synergies, cost savings, quality and most importantly compliance of Dawnay Day UK internal group policies. Arpit attracted and retained top quality senior talent and grew them in responsibility to manage large and challenging roles across diverse businesses.

When the extremely supportive Dawnay Day faced an unfortunate crisis in the UK, Arpit and his team managed to quickly find many potential buyers for the business at very attractive valuations. The business was successfully sold to a large Private Equity firm in 2008. Arpit and his core team decided to move on and set up their next venture.

Arpit founded ARYSS Group which aims to identify fundamentally strong businesses and power them with private investments and strategic management expertise to realise their true value, as well as set up new ventures. With a clear gap and opportunity in the specialised education space, ARYSS is currently working on setting up a greenfield venture offering high end Wealth Management, Derivatives & Fund Management accredited programmes, through financial services learning centres across the country.

A first in India, Arpit conducted a special 6 day Private Banking programme for 70 senior faculty members from 26 of India’s recognized MBA institutes and was instrumental in designing the curriculum and launching Private Banking elective programmes these MBA schools. The same team that helped in putting together this programme is with ARYSS. Arpit is an avid trainer with several hundred man hours of Private Banking training, under his belt. Across his 15 years career in Private Banking, Arpit traveled extensively not only to train but also keep himself updated with the international best practices. He is now a regular invitee to chair and speak at Private Banking Seminars and Conferences across the globe.

Arpit, a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) himself, served as the Chairman of CFP’s Examination and Certification committee for many years. Arpit holds a post-graduate degree in Finance from the University of Delhi, and a graduate degree in Science from St. Stephens College, New Delhi. Before he began his career in financial services, he worked in the corporate finance department of Ballarpur Industries, of the Thapar Group in India, which he joined in 1991 upon completing his post graduation

Extracts from Arpit’s Recommendations

"...I would like to highlight Arpit’s strongest qualities - Commitment, integrity and leadership"
Hemendra Kothari, Chairman of DSP Merrill Lynch

"Arpit has clearly demonstrated his edge over others by creating the largest and one of the best Private Banking business units not only in India but also in the Asia Pacific….Demonstrating strong entrepreneurial skills, he laid down his business objective with clarity , built robust foundations and through the last 4 years created a sizable, successful, sustainable and scaleable business for the organisation.… He has a passion to win and demonstrates commendable ability to create and work in a large team and is highly focussed."
N Vaghul, Chairman of ICICI Bank

"Arpit Agarwal, Joint General manager and Head Private Banking was hired in March 2002 to launch and manage the Private Banking initiative of the Bank. I have found him to be a person who has the capability to put down a vision for a business and then be able to hold on his own to see it through….As an individual he is self motivated, focussed and has a passion to continuously raise the bar higher. He has high integrity and has led by personal example."
K V Kamath, Managing Director and CEO of ICICI Bank

"I knew Arpit while he was at ICICI Bank as the head of Private Banking. I found him to be very creative and with the approach of a problem solver. He enjoyed his work and was particularly good at it."
Nachiket Mor, Member of Board of Directors, ICICI Bank

"...Being in the Private Banking Industry for the last 12 years, his grasp of the business and personal knowledge has been instrumental in launching the Private Banking MBA programmes in 26 colleges which is a pioneering initiative in India..."
Kalpana Morparia, Deputy Managing Director of ICICI Bank

Public recognition

Arpit Agarwal’s name features in "The Marquis Who’s Who in Asia" from 2007 & "The Marquis Who’s Who in the World" from 2008 onwards

2005
  • Speaker, Asian Banker "Wealth Management Advisory Forum", April 2005, Singapore
  • Speaker, Terrapinn "Private Banking Asia", June 2005, Singapore
  • Chairperson "Private Wealth Management Forum", September 2005, India
  • Speaker, Marcus Evans "Capitalising on Private Banking Asia", September 2005, Singapore
  • Speaker, Terrapinn "Hedge Funds World", September 2005, Hong Kong
  • Speaker, Financial Planning Standards Board (India), Financial Planning conference, October 2005, India
  • Speaker, Euromoney "Asia Wealth Management Forum", October 2005, Singapore
  • Speaker, Lafferty "Private Banker International" November 2005, Singapore
  • Speaker, "Structured Products Asia", November 2005, Hong Kong
2006
  • Speaker, Terrapinn "Alternative Investment Summit Asia 2006", February 2006, Thailand
  • Speaker, Terrapinn "Asset Allocation Summit 2006", March 2006, South Africa
  • Speaker, IQPC "Private Wealth Management Summit Asia 2006", May 2006, Singapore
  • Speaker, IQPC "Investment Opportunities in Indian Real Estate & Infrastructure", May 2006, Singapore
  • Speaker, Terrapinn "Private Banking Asia 2006" June 2006, Singapore
  • Speaker, IBN "Private Banking 2006", July 2006, Malaysia
  • Speaker, Terrapinn "Real Estate Investment World Africa 2006", July 2006, South Africa
  • Speaker, Terrapinn "Hedge Funds World Asia 2006", September 2006, Hong Kong
  • Speaker, Terrapinn "Funds World", October 2006, Mumbai, India
  • Speaker, Terrapinn "Private Banking Africa 2006", October 2006, South Africa
  • Chairperson, Terrapinn "Private Banking Middle East ", November 2006, Dubai
  • Speaker, Incisive Media "Structured Products Asia", November 2006, Hong Kong
  • Speaker, Terrapinn "Private Banking India", December 2006, India
2007
  • Speaker, Terrapinn "Asset Allocation Summit", March 2007, South Africa
  • Masterclass & Speaker, Terrapinn "Private Banking Asia", April 2007, Singapore
  • Speaker, Terrapinn "Real Estate Investment World India", April 2007, India
  • Speaker, Terrapinn "Structured Products World 2007" 3-4 May 2007, London
  • Masterclass & Speaker, Terrapinn "Private Banking and Wealth Management" 22-24 May 2007, Australia
  • Speaker, Terrapinn "Private Banking & wealth Management Africa", October 2007, South Africa
  • Speaker, Terrapinn "Structured Products World", November 2007, Sydney, Australia
  • Chairperson, Terrapinn "Private Banking Middle East ", December 2007, Dubai
2008
  • Masterclass & Speaker, Terrapinn "Private Banking Asia", April 2008, Singapore
  • Speaker, Terrapinn "Private Banking and Wealth Management" April 2008, Australia
  • Chairperson & Speaker, Terrapinn "Hedge Funds World Asian Managers Showcase", May 2008, Singapore
  • Speaker, Marcus Evans "Structured Products for the Private Banking Industry", June 2008, Singapore
  • Chairman & Speaker, Marcus Evans "India’s Investor Forum", August 2008, India
  • Speaker, IQPC "TradeTech India 2008", September 2008, India
  • Trainer, Incisive Media 2 Day Programmes "Excellence in Private Banking", December 2008, Singapore
  • Chairman, Terrapinn "Private Banking & Wealth Management MENA 2008", December 2008, Dubai
Feel free to contact Arpit at arpit.agarwal@aryss.in, for any of your business query.
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