In India, fewer banks are boy's clubs

India lacks a "golf-playing, beer-drinking homogeneous culture," said Naina Lal Kidwai, an HSBC director who is the former head of Morgan Stanley's investment business in India, The New York Times reported Thursday.

Taking out some of the boys-club expectations, bankers in India are more apt to be judged on merits, the Times reported.

As such, in India, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, UBS and the Royal Bank of Scotland are led by women, as are the investment banking divisions at Kotak Mahindra and JPMorgan Chase. The second and third largest banks in the country, Icici and Axis are run by women. Half of the policy makers at India's central bank are also women, the Times said.

Given the size of the country, many of the women executives in India oversee larger operations and more employees than bank operations in other countries.
Banks are one industry where numbers clearly delineate who deserves a promotions, but the pressure on women is still a factor.

"Always, that is a given. It was very clear we had to perform better and work harder," Kidwai said.

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