Bagchi joins the HDFC Bank board on 2 October and takes the chief executive chair on 27 October

Anup Bagchi sits on the HDFC Bank board from 2 October as an additional director, and he becomes managing director and chief executive on 27 October, after the Reserve Bank of India approved a three-year term. The bank told the exchanges on 1 October that the regulator's letter, dated the same day, cleared both the appointment and the pay under section 35B of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. Sashidhar Jagdishan leaves the chief executive chair at the close of business on 26 October.

The board acted on a recommendation from its governance, nomination and remuneration committee. It appointed Bagchi an additional director from 2 October until shareholders vote, and it appointed him chief executive from 27 October on the terms the RBI has already approved, again subject to shareholders. His director identification number is 00105962. The filing followed an intimation dated 12 September.

The other name on the list

Bagchi was one of two candidates the board sent to the regulator. The other was Kaizad M. Bharucha, the bank's deputy managing director. Jagdishan had opted out of a fresh term. The RBI chose Bagchi. That choice is the fact the 1 October letter settles. Bharucha remains deputy managing director. The succession is not an internal promotion from the deputy's chair.

Bagchi has been in the ICICI group since 1992. He has run treasury, retail and wholesale banking, investment banking and digital work, served as chief executive of ICICI Securities, sat as an executive director of ICICI Bank, and is managing director and chief executive of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance. He is an engineer from IIT Kanpur and a management graduate of IIM Bangalore. He will leave the life insurer's chair to take the bank. The filing does not set the date he resigns from ICICI Prudential. It sets the date he starts at HDFC Bank.

Why the two dates are not the same

The 2 October directorship and the 27 October chief executive start are different legal steps. From Friday he can sit as an additional director. He cannot sign as chief executive until Jagdishan has finished the 26th. The gap is 24 days. In that window the bank has a named successor on the board and an incumbent still in the chair. Shareholder approval is still required under the Companies Act, 2013, for both the directorship continuation and the chief executive appointment. The RBI approval does not replace that vote. It is what allows the board to put the name forward on terms the regulator has already accepted.

BusinessLine listed the appointment among stocks to watch on Monday, alongside the ordinary pre-open noise. The exchange filing itself is four days old. What is current is the directorship, which began on Friday, and the 24-day overlap before the chair changes. HDFC Bank is India's largest private-sector lender. The person who runs it from 27 October was, until this letter, running a life insurer in the same city, and he was not the internal deputy the board also offered the regulator.

The next dated event is the shareholder meeting that has not been called in the 1 October filing. Until that vote, Bagchi is an additional director with an RBI-cleared start date, and Jagdishan is still chief executive.