Kaizad Bharucha to get more responsibilities: HDFC Bank MD

Bengaluru: Kaizad Bharucha, Deputy Managing Director at HDFC Bank, will get more responsibilities as the bank looks at organisational restructuring in the coming days, said Sashidhar Jagdishan, MD and CEO, HDFC Bank.

Addressing an analysts call, on Thursday, he said, “He (Bharucha) will only get more responsibilities as we move forward. And the very fact that we were all unanimous both at the Board level to send his name for yet another term as a Deputy Managing Director reflects that and we are extremely happy that the approvals have come and he’s going to be there for the next three years, which is going to be one of our best years in the history of the bank.”

Stating that Kaizad is a very dear colleague, he said, “I have the highest regards and respect for him. We have worked together. Unfortunately, I do not know what kind of stories are going around. But today that man handles the entire business, the asset business of the balance sheet which reflects the kind of respect and stature that he commands within the organisation, both at the Board level and at the at the management level as well. So that will continue.”

No major issues

HDFC Bank’s interim part-time chairman Keki Mistry reassured the investors that there are “no major issues” at the bank and indicated that the development was not linked to any governance or operational issues.

“The bank has a very strong risk management process. It has a very strong audit process, and is a systemically-important bank and therefore gets supervised continuously by RBI on a regular basis. We, the Board, carry out various kinds of audits of different functions and there has never been anything from a governance standpoint to my mind, which has come to the attention of the Board,” Mistry told in the investors call.

Keki Mistry

Responding to an analyst’s query, regarding asking RBI to investigate the allegations made by the former chairman, Atanu Chakraborty, Mistry said the Board will meet soon, and take a call on what to do. “Many of the Board members went and met RBI, the regulator, and RBI is fully in the picture, fully in the loop and the fact that they are comfortable with what is going on in the bank is reflected in the fact that within a short period of time, they approved my appointment for three months just to stabilise things,” he said.

He also expressed confidence that the bank will come out very clean. “We have really truly the highest standards of governance and as I said, I believe very strongly in governance personally, I would never remain on the Board if I had the slightest doubt about governance,” he added.

Mistry, further added that the bank has the strongest form of governance that is possible in a financial institution, and is very strong on ethics. “As far as our seeking some explanation from Chakraborty, the Board will of course meet very, very soon and take a call on how to take it forward,” he said.