JPMorgan appoints Rahul Badhwar as India senior country officer

MUMBAI: Wall Street bank JP Morgan has appointed Rahul Badhwar from HSBC as senior country officer for India. Mint. The position had remained vacant since Kaustubh Kulkarni’s departure in September 2025.

“India is a critical market for our Asia Pacific franchise and Rahul (Badhwar) will play a central role in driving and executing our growth strategy across the country,” JP Morgan Asia Pacific CEO Sjoerd Leenart said in an internal memo. “It will help us deliver our entire firm to our clients and stakeholders, continue to strengthen governance and controls, and support our employees and communities.”

Leenart added that Badhwar will join JP Morgan in July, will be based in Mumbai and will report to him. The memo stated that he will also join the Asia Pacific Management Committee.

Badhwar joined JP Morgan from HSBC, where he spent three decades in a variety of sales and trading roles, most recently as global head of institutional sales for markets and securities services, according to the memo.

“He started his career in Global Markets in India and has since worked in Dubai, Hong Kong and London. Rahul has a strong track record of delivering cross-product solutions to enterprise and institutional clients and building high-performing teams,” the memo said.

An email sent to a JP Morgan spokesperson remained unanswered at the time of publication.

Leenart told Mint in September that JPMorgan was steadily adding staff to its banking and investment banking divisions, as well as its global talent centers (GCCs) in India. The majority of employees in India are in the four GCCs, which collectively employ around 55,000 people, he said.

Multinationals have increasingly expanded their Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) presence in India; these centers now perform more advanced functions beyond basic coding and support large-scale employment.

A February 2025 report by IT (information technology) industry body Nasscom said India’s GCC sector, which employs 1.9 million professionals across more than 1,800 GCC, is expected to grow from $64.6 billion in 2024 to $110 billion by 2030.