HDFC Bank sends two unnamed CEO candidates to the RBI

HDFC Bank's board on Saturday approved two names for managing director and chief executive and sent them to the Reserve Bank of India in order of preference, with proposed pay for a three-year term. The bank did not publish the names. Incumbent Sashidhar Jagdishan has said he will not seek another term. His second term ends on 26 October.

Jagdishan, 61, took over from Aditya Puri in October 2020 and was reappointed in 2023. HDFC Bank is India's largest private lender by assets. Together with State Bank of India and ICICI Bank it is on the RBI's list of domestic systemically important banks, which brings higher capital rules and closer watch on who runs the firm.

Indian law requires prior RBI approval for a private-sector bank CEO. The central bank can accept the first name, take the second, or send the file back. Until it writes, the market is trading a rumour list.

Who is being named in that list

Kaizad Bharucha, deputy managing director since 2023, is the internal name most often repeated. Jimmy Tata, the chief credit officer, is now in a different queue: the board asked the RBI to make him a whole-time director, styled executive director, for three years from the date of approval. That is a promotion that can sit beside a new CEO or, in some successions, become a stepping stone.

The board also reappointed V. Srinivasa Rangan as executive director from 23 November 2026 to 22 November 2027. Rangan is already on the executive bench. Keeping him there through the handover is a continuity signal.

Outside names that bankers have put in circulation include Anup Bagchi at ICICI Prudential Life, Rajiv Sabharwal at Tata Capital, Pralay Mondal at CSB Bank, former HDFC Bank deputy Paresh Sukthankar, Citi India chief K. Balasubramanian, Aditya Birla Capital chief Vishaka Mulye and HDFC Life chief Vibha Padalkar. None of those people has been confirmed as one of the two files now in Mint Street.

Why the chair is empty of a third term

Jagdishan's decision not to seek a third term followed a public fight with former part-time chairman Atanu Chakraborty, who resigned abruptly in March. Independent legal reviews later cleared the management of the allegations Chakraborty had raised. For a period this summer it still looked possible that the board would recommend Jagdishan again. He closed that door last month.

The timing is tight. A three-year CEO term that starts only after RBI approval needs a letter well before 26 October if the bank wants a clean switch. If the letter slips, the board will have to name an interim arrangement. Systemically important banks do not like interim arrangements that last into a results season.

What the RBI will look at

Fit and proper tests, preferred succession from inside, and the residual heat from the Chakraborty episode will all sit on the desk. Bharucha's years as deputy help an internal case. An outside name would signal that the board wants a break from the last six years. Sending two names in order of preference lets the regulator pick without forcing the board to announce a loser in public first.

Until the RBI speaks, HDFC Bank has a dated CEO, two sealed envelopes, a new proposed executive director in Tata, and a one-year extension for Rangan. That is a succession plan with the names still blacked out. The blackout is the point. The bank has done the part it can do in a boardroom. The next sentence belongs to the regulator.