The appointment of Sumant Kathpalia as the Managing Director and CEO of IndusInd Bank is expected to bring in a new era at the private sector lender. Current Incumbent Romesh Sobti has been the bank’s CEO since FY2007-08.

Analysts said that there had been lot of concerns in the recent past, about the lender’s asset quality, CEO succession and adverse macro developments (Supreme Court ruling on telecom AGR).

“Reserve Bank of India approval thus addresses one of the major overhang on the stock performance prompting us to assess the investment case as IIB navigates through residual asset quality challenges,” said Motilal Oswal in a research note on Friday.

The private sector lender had on Thursday announced that the RBI has approved Kathpalia’s appointment as the MD and CEO for a three year period from March 24, 2020.

His appointment was in line with expectation that the bank would recommend an internal candidate to the RBI as Sobti’s successor.

About Sumant Kathpalia

Kathpalia, who works out of the bank’s New Delhi office, has been associated with the lender since 2008 and currently heads the consumer banking division-- which forms 54 per cent of the total loan portfolio. He is seen as being responsible for building the bank’s retail franchise.

A Chartered Accountant, Kathpalia has over 20 years of rich experience in banking. He has worked with foreign banks including Citibank and Bank of America. Prior to joining IndusInd Bank, he was the Head – Consumer Banking at ABN AMRO Bank.

IndusInd Bank scrip was down 0.28 per cent on BSE in intraday trade.

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