The board of directors of private sector lender Bandhan Bank will likely meet later this week and could finalise the name of the candidates that will be recommended to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for the post of the interim CEO, sources say.
“The directors have scheduled a meeting over the weekend and could take the final call over the interim CEO post,” a source said. The bank did not respond to queries sent by FE till press time.
Incumbent MD and CEO Chandra Shekhar Ghosh is set to retire on July 9. According to sources, two internal executive directors (ED) – Ratan Kumar Kesh and Rajinder Kumar Babbar – are the frontrunners for the position. Kesh, being the senior-most ED at the bank, could be the first choice for the board.
Kesh joined Bandhan Bank as ED in March 2023 and is also currently serving as the chief operating officer. He has worked with ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Yes Bank and Axis Bank in his earlier stints. Babbar was appointed Bandhan Bank ED and the chief business officer in March this year. He has worked with HDFC Bank for more than two decades.
Further, the bank has appointed consulting and leadership advisory firm Egon Zehnder to scout for a permanent CEO, a source said.
In April, Bandhan Bank founder Ghosh announced that he will retire from his position at the end of his third tenure on July 9, 2024. He would, however, continue to have a “larger strategic” role at the group level after retirement.
“After leading the bank for almost a decade, including three consecutive tenures as MD & CEO, I feel that the time has now come for me to assume a larger strategic role at Bandhan group level. Hence, I have decided to retire from the services of Bandhan Bank at the end of my current tenure as MD & CEO, i.e. on July 9, 2024,” he said.
The announcement came as a surprise as the board in November 2023 approved re-appointment of Ghosh as MD and CEO for a period of three years.