Legendary Citicorp CEO Wriston dies
New York: Former Citicorp chairman and chief executive Walter B Wriston, whose innovative leadership led to many of modern banking conveniences, passed away at the age of 85. Wriston was suffering from pancreatic cancer, a Citigroup spokesperson said on Thursday.

Under Wriston's reign, Citicorp developed the certificate of deposit, the modern bank holding company and expanded the company's presence in consumer banking. Wriston was awarded the presidential Medal of Freedom in June by President George W Bush, who said the Connecticut native "saw the trends of the future, and started a few of his own like electronic banking."

He was elected president of Citicorp in 1967 and served as chairman from 1970 until he retired in 1984. The company, now known as Citigroup Inc, has since become the world's largest bank. During his tenure, Citicorp experienced dramatic growth, with its assets increasing to $ 150.6 billion and loan growth reaching $ 102.7 billion.

Wriston also served as chairman of President Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board.

Wriston pushed to de-regulate the banking industry, working to move it from an old-fashioned business of saving accounts and commercial loans to a broad-based enterprise that would involve a variety of financial services.

His leadership saw the development of automated teller machines at banks, the explosive growth of credit card lending and the expansion of bank branches across the nation, then globally.
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JRD Tata award for Venu Srinivasan
New Delhi: The All-India Management Association (AIMA) has conferred the prestigious JRD Tata Corporate Leadership Award for the year 2004 on the Chairman and Managing Director of the TVS Motor Company, Venu Srinivasan.

As the tenth recipient of this award, Venu Srinivasan joins the distinguished list of previous awardees comprising late Aditya Bikram Birla, Deepak Parekh, N.R. Narayana Murthy, Dr R.A. Mashelkar, Azim Premji, Suresh Krishna, M.V. Subbiah, Dr J.J. Irani and A.M. Naik.
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Padmakumar joins Equity Intelligence
Kochi: K.P. Padmakumar, former Chairman of Federal Bank, has joined Kochi-based portfolio management company, Equity Intelligence India Pvt. Ltd., as its Chairman. He has also taken a 10 per cent stake in Equity Intelligence.

Prior to joining Federal Bank, Padmakumar was with the State Bank of India Asset Management Company as well as a fund manager in SBI.
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