Reserve Bank of India has approved Sashidhar Jagdishan’s appointment as the new MD & CEO of HDFC Bank. He will fill in the shoes of outgoing MD Aditya Puri. After the announcement came to light, shares of the bank jumped by 5.89 percent and were the one of the highest gainers on the Nifty 50 index after RBI’s go-ahead.
Sasidhar Jagdishan will be at helm for a period of three years starting from October 27, 2020. The recommendations submitted to RBI were Kaizad Bharucha, ED at HDFC Bank and Sunil Garg, Global CEO of Citi Commercial Bank.
Having had joined the bank in 1996 as a manager in finance, Sashidhar worked his way up to become business head of finance in 1999 and was appointed as Chief Financial Officer in 2008. In his current role, Sashidhar is the Group Head of Finance, Human Resources, Legal & Secretarial, Administration, Infrastructure, Corporate Communications, CSR and the Strategic Change Agent of the bank.
“Global cues are positive and RBI approval for the CEO seat at HDFC Bank is supporting domestic markets,” said Rahul Sharma, Head of Research, Equity99 Advisors.
The incumbent MD & CEO, Aditya Puri has catapulted the private sector bank from humble origins to the world class status it enjoys today. Before joining HDFC Bank, he was the CEO of Citi Bank in Malaysia.
Half way through the pandemic and with the fight against Covid-19 far from over, it remains to be seen how Sasidhar chauffeurs the private lender through these turbulent times as banks continue to crumble under the pressure of dismal investing sentiment. Right from business continuity concerns to the overall financial services outlook, the damage done by the pandemic is seminal and addressing these challenges will require overarching prowess which Sasidhar definitely has owing to his varied experience.
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