HDFC Bank Ltd on Saturday said that its Chief Executive Officer Sashidhar Jagdishan has decided not to seek reappointment when his term ends on 26 October this year.
“Despite persuasion, Mr. Sashidhar Jagdishan reiterated his decision to not seek reappointment…,” India’s largest private lender said in an exchange filing. “The board deeply appreciated his commitment, leadership, contribution to growth, stability of the bank and his role in successful completion of one of the largest mergers in corporate India.”
The bank has now fast-tracked the process to find his successor.
With this, HDFC Bank becomes the latest private-sector lender to witness a leadership change. In June, Kotak Mahindra Bank CEO Ashok Vaswani decided to step down at the end of his current term on 31 December 2026. Mint reported on 27 June that over the past two years, five other private-sector banks — Yes Bank, IndusInd Bank, Bandhan Bank, Karnataka Bank and City Union Bank — have seen leadership changes.
Five months ago, HDFC Bank lurched into a crisis after then Chairman Atanu Chakraborty resigned, with his 17 March letter to the board citing “certain happenings and practices within the bank” that were “not in congruence” with his personal values and ethics. The lender had then reiterated that Chakraborty “did not mention any happenings and practices which were not in congruence with his personal values and ethics”. He did not elaborate.
That led to an external review by two law firms and an eventual clean chit to the bank. Chakraborty later called the review a superfluous exercise. The law firm’s review and the pending appointment of the chairman had been delaying the board’s decision on Jagdishan’s tenure.
In May, The Indian Express reported that HDFC Bank had made payments of ₹45 crore to the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation that were routed as marketing expenses to effectively offer higher returns on deposits. The bank had then said it strongly rejects any assumptions of wrongdoing or culpability based on selective material.
In July, HDFC Bank’s Deputy Managing Director Kaizad M. Bharucha said the bank’s governance, nomination and remuneration committee and the board are completely seized of the matter, and this (CEO appointment) is work in process.
Jagdishan, 61, joined HDFC Bank in 1996 as a manager in the finance division, and went on to become the finance head in 1999. Subsequently, he was appointed as the chief financial officer of HDFC Bank in 2008.
On 27 August, Suresh Ganapathy, managing director and head-financial services research at Macquarie Capital, had told Mint said that there are two main options now, considering the paucity of time. “Either the MD & CEO gets a tenure extension of say around six months or a full three-year tenure. In the case of the former, we believe, the messaging here is that the board is looking for candidates apart from the current CEO and wants time from Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to recommend a new list,” Ganapathy said.