CEO succession: Axis Bank board recommends 3 names for RBI nod

Axis Bank on Tuesday said its board of directors has recommended three candidates for Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) approval. The approved candidate will succeed its current managing director and CEO Shikha Sharma whose term ends on December 31, 2018. “In this connection, please note that in terms of extant RBI norms and the succession planning process of the bank, the board of directors of the bank at its meeting held on July 9, 2018, has recommended the names of three candidates, in order of preference, for the approval of the RBI,” the bank said in a regulatory filing.

The bank added that as mandated under the extant RBI norms, it will submit its application in respect of the recommendations relating to the appointment, for the approval of the central bank. In April, the private-sector lender had said its board of directors accepted MD and CEO Shikha Sharma’s request to shorten her tenure to December 31, 2018. Meanwhile, in December last year, the bank’s board had reappointed Sharma the managing director and CEO of the bank, for a period of three years from June 1, 2018.

Sharma’s request to seek shortening of her tenure had come at a time when RBI reportedly asked the bank’s board to reconsider its decision to extend her tenure by three years. Agencies had reported citing people in the know that RBI shot off a letter to the chairman of Axis Bank, Sanjiv Misra — also former expenditure secretary — with regard to the board’s decision to reappoint Sharma.

Axis Bank