Sashidhar Jagdishan to be next MD and CEO of HDFC Bank

In a change of guard at the country’s largest private sector lender, the Reserve Bank of India has approved the appointment of Sashidhar Jagdishan as Managing Director and CEO of HDFC Bank.

“The RBI vide its communication dated August 3, 2020,has approved the appointment of Sashidhar Jagdishan as Managing Director and CEO of the bank for a period of three years with effect from October 27, 2020,” the private sector lender said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.

The bank’s board will be meeting soon to approve the appointment of Jagdishan, who will take over from incumbent Aditya Puri who is set to retire on October 26.

Jagdishan, 55, is currently Group Head and Change Agent, HDFC Bank. He has been with the lender for nearly 24 years.

According to his profile on the bank’s website, he heads the functions of Finance, Human Resources, Legal and Secretarial, Administration, Infrastructure, Corporate Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility.

He joined the bank in 1996 as a Manager in the Finance function and then moved on to Business Head- Finance in 1999. He was appointed as the Chief Financial Officer of HDFC Bank in 2008. With 30 years of experience, Jagdishan was with Deutsche Bank before joining HDFC Bank.

At the bank’s annual general meeting last month, Puri had said the new MD would likely be an internal candidate with a long career at the lender. Puri has been with associated with the bank since 1994.

Experts noted that the announcement brings to rest concerns about succession planning at the lender.

“Sashidhar has tremendous opportunity to build on the lead the bank has taken in last two decades,” noted Raamdeo Agrawal, Chairman, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

Following the announcement, the bank’s scrip closed nearly four per cent higher at ₹1,041.40 apiece on BSE.

Jagdishan will be taking over at a time of increased economic uncertainty amidst the Covid-19 led crisis. The loan moratorium is set to get over at the end of the month and banks will begin to get a better picture of repayments and stressed assets.

About nine per cent of HDFC Bank’s loan book is under moratorium. It had reported a robust 19.6 per cent growth in its net profit for the first quarter of the fiscal but had noted that the continued economic slowdown had led to a decrease in retail loan origination, sale of third party products, use of credit and debit cards by customers, efficiency in collection efforts and waivers of certain fees.