TS Anil, the new CEO of Monzo

After co-founder Tom Blomfield decided to move to the newly established position of president, TS Anil the Monzo’s US CEO is going to become the CEO of Monzo as such. But who is he?

Anil was assigned as a leader for the Monzo’s US push. He has 25-year financial services experience, previously he was Visa’s global head of payment products and platforms but he has also worked for Citi, Capital One, and Standard Chartered.

With the recent news about Monzo seeking funding and its drop of valuation, his appointment could be seen as a bet on experience and maturity during uncertain times. But Sifted managed to interview his former colleagues and they claimed that Anil is more than just a banking suit.

He seems to have a wide range of interests, talents and skills. He’s even partial to a boogie on the dance floor, according to one former colleague: “he’s got the wackiest taste in music”.

Apart from that TS Anil is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, India. He is married and has two sons. TS is a keen traveler, reader and as mentioned, a huge fan of dancefloors.

“Anil is not your die-in-the-role sort of banker,” says Hal Bosher, Amil’s friend of over 20 years and chairman of Wave Money in Myanmar. “He’s a very fun guy.”

TS began his career in 1993 with Citibank in India and spent several years in sales, product management and P&L roles in the consumer lending businesses – mortgages, personal Loans, SME Lending and retail finance.

In late 1999, he joined Capital One, in the United States, where he was responsible for a number of significant businesses in their U.S. and Canadian credit card markets – across the subprime, superprime and partnerships segments.

He returned to Citi in 2005 in the Asia Pacific Regional Office in Singapore, responsible for product, marketing and portfolio strategy for the credit card business for the Asia Pacific region. He was later appointed president & CEO of Citi Cards Japan Inc., and moved to Tokyo to run the Japan cards business for Citi.

Read also: Monzo bank’s Tom Blomfield quits as CEO

Anil was credited for turning around loss-making units of CitiCard in Japan during a difficult time. He was also recognised as a bright talent by Standard Chartered, who snagged him to make him one of its youngest leaders at the age of 42.

Later TS Anil has become the Global Head of Payment Products and Platforms at Visa. Here he was responsible for leading efforts to define the next generation of payment processing.

The new position of Monzo’s CEO will prove as a crucial challenge for Anil since he has just joined Monzo during December last year as its US CEO. However, at that point, nobody was aware of anything that is going to happen during the upcoming 6 months.

“Honestly nothing fazes TS. He really can handle high amounts of stress and never shows it. I watched him transform a business and lead through the financial crisis,” Meghan Connolly, who worked under Anil at Standard Chartered told Sifted.

Anil is described as somebody who can delicately navigate company politics. With his broad experience and a bright mind, he seems to be the right person to lead a challenger bank during turbulent times.

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