In a business organisation, the top management consists of the CEO and the departmental heads. If the CEO is also the member of the Board, he is called a Managing Director (MD). The departmental heads are Vice Presidents. They are No. 2 in the organisation, reporting directly to the Big Boss. However in banking, there is a plethora of directors, vice presidents and even MDs. It is estimated that an astounding 40 per cent staff of Goldman are VPs, and they have 2400 MDs. This stands in sharp contrast to the non-banking sector. Such fancy designations are common to all investment banks, including those in India. In MNC banks in India, it is estimated that of the 2210 people employed, 365 are VPs, 325 are directors and 65 are MDs. It thus constitutes 25 per cent of the total staff. In I-banking in India, including both the domestic and foreign sector, there are 49 VPs, 31 directors and 32 MDs out of the total executive head-count of 782. Just key in the bank VP in LinkedIn’s search box and you are likely to get around 5 lac hits.

It is explained that these designations are not jobs, but grades that reflect seniority. However, this is not a sufficient explanation.Maybe, these titles on visiting cards are suitable for market facing executives. They are ubiquitous and are not related to the job one is doing. Even a person doing in-house tech support can be called MD, technology.