Private sector lender Bandhan Bank on Saturday said its board has approved the appointment of Ratan Kumar Kesh, Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, as Interim MD &CEO of the bank for a period of three months or until the new Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer takes charge.
The Kolkata-based lender’s MD and CEO, Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, will retire on July 9 upon completion of his current tenure, after spending nearly a decade at the helm.
In a stock exchange filing, the bank said pursuant to the approval of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and on the basis of the recommendation of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee, the board of directors at its meeting held on Saturday approved the appointment of Kesh as the Interim MD&CEO with effect from July 10 for three months or till new MD&CEO takes charge, whichever is earlier. His appointment is subject to the approval of the shareholders of the bank.
The board has appointed an Interim MD &CEO as the selection process for Ghosh’s successor has not been completed.
In a letter written to the board of directors of the Bandhan Bank on April 5, Ghosh informed that he would retire from the services of the bank as the MD&CEO upon 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 is looking to assume a larger strategic role at Bandhan group level after stepping down from the bank.
Ratan Kumar Kesh, who will be assuming the role of the Interim MD &CEO, has been the Executive Director & Chief Operating Officer of the bank since March 31, 2023. Earlier, he was with Axis Bank.
“Kesh successfully led the IT transformation at the bank and has been playing an instrumental role in optimizing the processes, controls, customer services, business excellence, etc. at the bank,” according to the stock exchange filing of Bandhan Bank. Kesh is leading multiple functions, including Technology, Operations, Customer Experience, Transformation, Internal Audit, Recovery, and other support functions.
Notably, Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, 63, is the founder of the bank, which started operations as a universal bank on August 23, 2015, after becoming India’s first microfinance institution to get a universal banking licence from RBI.
Ghosh set up Bandhan in 2001 as an NGO to meet the dual objective of women’s 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.