HDFC Bank’s board has submitted names of two candidates to the Reserve Bank of India for appointment as the bank’s next managing director and chief executive officer, it said in an exchange notification on Saturday, formally starting the succession process for Sashidhar Jagdishan, who is due to retire later this year. The bank did not disclose the names of the candidates.
Jagdishan, who has led the bank since 2020, is set to step down at the end of his second term in October.
The bank will submit the names along with the proposed remuneration for the candidates to RBI for approval for a three-year term.
Kaizad Bharucha, the bank’s deputy managing director, is rumoured to be the most likely internal candidate to succeed Jagdishan.
Other potential contenders include Anup Bagchi, CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance; Paresh Sukthankar, former deputy managing director at HDFC Bank; Vibha Padalkar, CEO of HDFC Life Insurance; Rajiv Sabharwal, CEO of Tata Capital; and Amitabh Chaudhry, CEO of Axis Bank.
The board also approved the reappointment of V Srinivasa Rangan as whole-time director, designated as executive director, for a one-year period from November 23 to November 22, 2027. He currently oversees human resources, corporate legal, group oversight and secretarial functions, along with investment banking, information security, ethics, and fraud and vigilance. It also approved the appointment of Jimmy Tata as whole-time director, designated as executive director, for three years, subject to RBI approval.
The board also approved the creation of one additional whole-time director position, taking the number of whole-time directors on the board to four, apart from the MD & CEO. The bank said the additional position is “in order to have sharper synergy and oversight, including on the subsidiaries of the bank as well as to have larger pipeline for succession planning” and will be filled in consultation with the incoming MD & CEO after the successor takes charge.