HDFC Bank: Board yet to recommend CEO, chairman names; process ongoing

HDFC Bank’s top management on Saturday clarified that the process to suggest the name of current CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan for a further third term and alternatives to part-time chairman Keki Mistry is still on.

HDFC Bank reported a strong set of financial numbers led by 14.4% deposit growth in FY26, where it outpaced advances, which grew 10.2% for the year. Net profit for the fiscal came in at ₹19,221 crore for the quarter ended March and ₹74, 671 crore for FY26, showing a year on year growth of 9% for the quarter and 10.9% for the full fiscal.

“On Jagdishan’s candidature, the NRC [Nomination and Remuneration Committee] and the board is seized of the matter. It will be taken up in due course as the process requires,” HDFC Bank’s board member and deputy managing director Kaizad Bharucha told the media. The Bank said there is a timeline and disclosures required to be made which will be done soon.

Jagdishan’s second term ends on October 26, 2026, while Mistry’s term as part-time chairman ends on June 18.

Legal review reports awaited

The two regulators, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India have come out in support of the Bank. RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra at the last policy meeting on April 8 said that minute meetings and supervisory data of HDFC Bank had been reviewed and it found nothing of material concern.

The legal review reports from Wadia Ghandy and Trilegal are in progress. “The data is voluminous. It takes time, the Bank will come out in the open and share it,” Jagdishan told media.

This was one of the rare appearances of Jagdishan for a virtual media interaction and the first earnings announcement since what the Bank called an “unprecedented event” after the sudden exit of the Bank’s former part-time chairman Atanu Chakraborty, who in his resignation letter in March cited certain “happenings and

practices” at the bank over the past two years, were not in congruence with his “personal values and ethics”.

HDFC Bank now has 9,700 branches and in excess of 100 million customers

Net interest income (interest earned less interest expended) for the March-ended quarter grew by 3.2% to ₹330.8 billion from levels a year ago. Net interest margin was at 3.38% on total assets, and 3.53% based on interest earning assets.

Gross non-performing loans as a share of total advances eased to 1.15% at end-March from 1.24% in the previous quarter.

A month after the sudden exit of its former part-time chairman Atanu Chakraborty, several questions remain unanswered.

Investors remain wary of leadership succession. In recent weeks, data shows that foreign investor sell-off in the HDFC Bank stock was high; the shareholding is now down to 44.05% in the March-ended quarter from an earlier 47.67% in the previous December-ended quarter.

Now nearly a month since Chakraborty’s exit, the stock is almost flat at ₹800 at the BSE on April 16, (Friday) from ₹798 on March 18 when the announcement of Chakraborty’s exit took place.

The mega-merger of HDFC with the parent Bank, effective July 2023, continues to weigh in on the Bank. HDFC Bank had an elevated loan-to-deposit (LDR) ratio which is near 100% levels, but it has been coming down. A high LDR means that a bank has let out most of its deposits, which can signal liquidity risks.

The Board of Directors have now recommended a final dividend of ₹13.00 per equity share of ₹1 for the year ended March 31, 2026.