HDFC Bank board finalises Puri's successor, waits for RBI nod
The board of India's largest private sector lender HDFC Bank on Saturday decided on the best-suited candidates to succeed its Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Aditya Puri, whose names would be submitted to the RBI. Puri has been the head of the bank since its incorporation 25 years ago and has led it to be the largest and most valuable bank, on the back of a strict hold over asset quality.
It is one of the most coveted jobs in the sector and all the watchers are keenly awaiting who will be the chosen appointee. HDFC Bank board had appointed a search committee and also engaged external headhunters to help it find the candidate.
"The Board of Directors of the bank has today (Saturday) finalised the names of three candidates, in the order of preference, for the position of the managing director and chief executive officer (MD & CEO) of the bank," the bank informed the bourses in a statutory filing.
The intimation did not elaborate on who the three are. A media report in the run up to the board meet on Saturday had said that the names of Sashidhar Jagdishan, Kaizad Bharucha and Sunil Garg are the ones who have made the cut.
Jagdishan and Bharucha are the internal candidates and have been serving the bank for many years each, while Garg is working with American bank Citi at present.
Meanwhile, the bank also informed that Jagdishan and Bhavesh Zaveri, who is in charge of operations, have resigned as additional directors, following instructions from the RBI to keep their appointments in abeyance till a new MD and CEO takes charge.
Both of them submitted their resignations from the post of additional directors and the bank's board has accepted the same, the lender said.
Garg is the chief executive of Citi Commercial Bank, while Jagdishan is an additional director who heads the finance, human resources, legal and secretarial functions, and Bharucha is an executive director responsible for wholesale banking.
Jagdishan was last year reportedly appointed as a "change agent" and made him head of important functions, while Bharucha looks after the important wholesale banking piece.
Puri had recently told reporters that his successor will be announced before April.
"The recommendations are with the search committee and before April, an appropriate person who will take the bank into the future will be announced," he had told reporters over a conference call last month.
