Abhishek A.

About Abhishek A.

I bring over 25 years of leadership experience across banking and financial services, building and scalingrevenue businesses in digital payments, credit cards, merchant acquiring, and insurance. I operate at theintersection of national distribution, P&L ownership, and portfolio growth. My focus has consistently been onstrengthening commercial engines, improving productivity, and building profitable, governance-led businesseswithin complex BFSI ecosystems.In my current role as Senior Vice President leading national sales in merchant acquiring and cards, I overseelarge-scale distribution and multi-thousand-crore portfolios across India. I drive growth across merchantecosystems, digital payments, and cross-sell integration spanning lending, CASA, and insurance. My mandatecentres on expanding national distribution, strengthening monetisation, and building high-performance salesteams aligned to long-term profitability. I also collaborate with teams to foster customer-focused strategies, streamline processes, and build impactful initiatives including BEYOND BANKING SOLUTIONS. Through leadership, team building, and customer support expertise, I aim to contribute to the organisation\'s mission of delivering high-quality merchant acquisition services and fortifying its position in the BFSI domain.Throughout my career, I have led several initiatives that delivered measurable outcomes, including:– Scaled credit card acquisition 3X in three years without increasing headcount.– Turned a loss-making Cr portfolio profitable within 60 days.– Drove 80% digital onboarding adoption, improving cost efficiency and conversion.– Reduced vendor costs by 67% through commercial restructuring.– Built and managed 500+ member teams delivering consistent 100% AOP achievement.I invest deeply in building strong leadership benches and disciplined operating cultures. I work closely withproduct, risk, operations, and technology teams to ensure scale does not come at the cost of governance,maintaining zero audit observations across leadership roles. An alumnus of IIT Kharagpur (VGSOM), I valueclarity, accountability, and steady execution as the foundation of sustainable growth.

Experience

1. Senior Vice President Vertical Head, Platinum, Merchant Acquiring National Distribution Lead

   Axis Bank

   Feb 2024 — Present

   I lead national sales for the Merchant Acquiring business, overseeing a large-scale distribution network and multi-channel revenue portfolio across digital payments, lending, and cross-sell businesses. I drive national growth strategy, portfolio monetisation, and performance governance across a 500+ member sales organisation. My mandate includes strengthening merchant ecosystems, improving digital adoption, and expanding solution-led distribution while maintaining disciplined risk and compliance standards.Under my leadership, the portfolio has delivered consistent 100% AOP performance while scaling merchant penetration across key sectors. I have increased digital onboarding adoption to 80%, strengthened activation through solution-led GTM, and expanded cross-sell integration across lending and insurance. Enterprise deal closures and national partnerships have strengthened pipeline visibility and long-term revenue stability, while maintaining zero audit observations. Driving BEYOND BANKING solutions across NTB and ETB Portfolio have helped move the needle.

Education

• IIT Kharagpur - Vinod Gupta School of Management

  PGDBM, Finance

  2004 — 2006

• St. Xavier's College (Autonomous), Kolkata

  B.Com(H), Accountancy

  1996 — 1999

• Don Bosco School, Park Circus, Kolkata

  ICSE, Accounting

  1984 — 1994

• St. Xavier's College (Autonomous), Kolkata

  HS, Accountancy

  1994 — 1996

Skills

• Call Centers
• Business Development
• Customer Satisfaction
• Sales
• Banking
• Team Management
• Team Building
• Management
• Insurance
• Analysis
• Mis
• Cross Selling
• Crm
• Direct Sales
• Bancassurance
• Channel
• Credit
• Managerial Finance
• Business Planning
• Retail
• Relationship Management
• Direct Marketing
• Leadership
• Portfolio Management
• Start-Ups