Sameer Ratolikar Joins Axis Bank As CISO

Sameer Ratolikar, the Chief Technology Officer for Bank of India has resigned from his position with the nationalised bank. Ratolikar will be joining as Chief Information Security Officer for Axis Bank, effective September 17, 2013.

A veteran security technocrat with nearly 20 years of experience in Information Technology, this transition brings to an end his six year association with Bank of India and marks his foray into the private sector with Axis Bank.

Shedding some light on his new role and key priorities, Ratolikar shared that as he had just taken over, it was too early to state anything specific in this transition period. However, he did mention, “One of my key priorities in this role will be to create a robust and formidable information security posture for the organisation to secure operations and manage risk.”

Widely considered a “thought leader” in the field of Information Security by his peers, Ratolikar is a former scientist who began his career as a Security and Networking analyst for the National Informatics Centre in 1995. In his tenure at NIC, Ratolikar worked for the Government of Gujarat for developing their e-governance projects, going on to receiving three promotions and commendations from the Ministry of Information Technology for excellence in e-governance over a period of 12 years.

He joined Bank of India as CISO in 2007 leading the organisation’s efforts to develop cutting edge security protocols beyond regulatory compliance. Ratolikar instituted radical changes within the Bank’s security framework garnering significant accolades along the way.

Bank of India went on to be the first south Asian bank to receive PCI DSS compliance for its card products and the first bank to implement a two-factor authentication system for secure online banking. As an outcome of this implementation, the bank witnessed over 18 months of zero online fraud incidents.

Ratolikar is also involved in the developing of new security standards for Indian banks as a member of a panel of regulators and the Indian Banks’ Association. He has also authored a security manual - “Information Security Demystified” - relating to organic intelligence and human security for bank employees.