Axis Bank keeps mum on senior executives' exits

Mumbai: Axis Bank has refused to comment on reports of resignation by two senior executives — deputy MD V Srinivasan and head of corporate and transaction banking Sidharth Rath — on grounds that they are speculative. The bank also did not comment on reports that it has hired S M Sundaresan, head of corporate banking at Standard Chartered, as head of corporate banking.

Srinivasan (52), a former investment banker with JP Morgan, was brought into Axis Bank as executive director, in charge of corporate banking by Shikha Sharma in 2009. He was elevated to the lender’s board in October 2012 and then to the position of deputy MD in 2015. His elevation to the number two position was seen by some as positioning him to be the eventual successor to Sharma (58). According to sources, Srinivasan is currently a candidate for a CEO position at another private bank — where a committee is looking at executives to succeed the existing chief executive.

Also, there is speculation that Rath may join Standard Chartered as head of corporate banking in Sundaresan’s place. Rath, has been with Axis Bank since 2001. He began his career as a management trainee with the Industrial Finance Corporation of IndiaBSE -1.96 % (IFCI), the first development financial institution of India, with core skills in project and corporate finance domain.

Axis Bank