Bandhan Bank appoints Ratan Kumar Kesh as interim MD and CEO

Private sector lender Bandhan Bank on Saturday said its board has appointed Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer Ratan Kumar Kesh as the interim MD and CEO of the bank for a period of three months or until the new Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer takes charge. The appointment has been approved. charge.

Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, MD and CEO of the Kolkata-based lender, will retire on July 9 on completion of his current tenure, after spending almost a decade there.

In a stock exchange filing, the bank said that in accordance with the approval of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and based on the recommendation of the nomination and remuneration committee, the board of directors at its meeting held on Saturday approved the appointment. Kesh has been appointed interim MD and CEO for three months from July 10 or until the new MD and CEO takes charge, whichever is earlier. His appointment is subject to the approval of the bank’s shareholders.

The board has appointed an interim MD and CEO as the selection process for Ghosh’s successor has not been completed.

In a letter to the board of directors of Bandhan Bank on April 5, Ghosh informed that he will retire from services as MD and CEO of the bank on completion of his current tenure on July 9. He has been the lender’s managing director and chief executive officer since July 10, 2015.

In his letter to the board, Ghosh said he wants to play a larger strategic role at the Bandhan group level after stepping down from the bank.

Ratan Kumar Kesh, who will take over the role of interim MD and CEO, is the executive director and chief operating officer of the bank with effect from March 31, 2023. Before this, he was with Axis Bank.

According to Bandhan Bank’s stock exchange filing, “Kesh successfully led the IT transformation in the bank and has been instrumental in optimizing the processes, controls, customer services, business excellence etc. in the bank.” Kesh is leading multiple functions including technology, operations, customer experience, transformation, internal audit, recovery and other support functions.

Notably, 63-year-old Chandra Shekhar Ghosh is the founder of the bank, which began operations as a universal bank on 23 August 2015 after becoming India’s first microfinance institution to receive a universal banking license from the RBI.

Ghosh founded Bandhan as an NGO in 2001 to fulfill the dual objective of women empowerment and poverty alleviation. In 2006, Bandhan acquired a non-banking finance company (NBFC) and named it Bandhan Financial Services (BFSL), which became the largest microfinance institution in the country in 2010.