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The Reserve Bank of India has officially approved the appointment of Sashidhar Jagdishan as the MD and CEO of HDFC Bank. "The Reserve Bank of India has approved the appointment of Mr. Sashidhar Jagdishan as Managing Director & CEO of the Bank for a period of 3 years w.e.f. his date of taking charge, i.e. October 27, 2020, under Section 35B of the Banking Regulation Act 1949," the central bank said in a statement. "The meeting of the Board of Directors of the Bank approve the appointment of Mr. Sashidhar Jagdishan as the Managing Director & CEO of the Bank, in place of Mr. Aditya Puri, who is due to retire as Managing Director of the Bank on October 26, 2020," the bank added. "I am absolutely delighted that RBI has approved Sashidhar Jagdishan�s name," Aditya Puri, who retires upon achieving the age of 70, said. Shashidhar Jagdishan, with over 29 years of experience, is currently the Group Head of Finance, Human Resources, Legal & Secretarial, Administration, Infrastructure, Corporate Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility. He also joined the bank around 1996 as a Manager in the Finance function, and then went on to became Business Head - Finance in 1999 and Chief Financial Officer in the year 2008. At the bank�s recently held Annual General Meeting, Aditya Puri, the Chief Executive Officer of HDFC Bank, had indicated, �There has been a lot of talk about the successor not being with us for a long time. Our potential successor has been with us for 25 years. My successor was always in place, at least in my mind. It is now for RBI to decide,� he said. Aditya Puri has led HDFC Bank since its inception in 1994, and will retire in October when he reaches the maximum age limit of 70 years for private bank chiefs. He also holds the distinction of being the longest-running CEO of any bank in India. Credited with scripting the bank�s success story, Puri has grown the bank�s balance sheet by a consistent 20 percent-plus annual growth rate to Rs 1,545,103 crore now through the economic upturns and downturns.
Sashi, as Sashidhar Jagdishan is popularly called, emerged as the front-runner, with Puri dropping several hints about his role in bringing about the digital transformation in the bank to give it an edge above its peers. Jagdishan has worked closely with Puri since he joined the bank in the 1996.