Axis Bank's Kaul to join Bajaj Allianz

Hemant Kaul, executive director of Axis Bank, would soon join Bajaj Allianz General Insurance as chief executive officer, the non-life insurer said today.

This follows resignation of Bajaj Allianz General Insurance CEO Swaraj Krishnan. Kaul is scheduled to take charge on December 1 and his appointment is subject to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority’s (Irda’s) approval.

Kaul, a 15-year veteran of Axis Bank, was in race for the top job at the bank and favoured by former managing director and CEO, PJ Nayak, to succeed him. Nayak fell out with the board, which was in favour of a candidate from outside, Shikha Sharma, and quit. “I am leaving for better opportunities and joining Bajaj Allianz, which is one of the most respected insurers in the country,” Kaul told Business Standard.

He added his experience in building distribution channels would come in handy in his new position. Recently, as part of a restructuring exercise, Kaul was put in charge of non-banking retail subsidiaries and his pervious portfolio, retail banking, was assigned to another executive director, SK Chakrabarti.

ADAG recasts R-Money operations
Vikrant Gugnani will head Reliance Money’s wealth management and investment banking units, new businesses that the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group is planning to foray into. In addition, Kapil Bali will handle brokerage and distribution businesses.

Earlier, Sudeep Bandyopadhyay, who recently left the group, was in charge of all Reliance Money businesses. In recent months, Reliance Money’s structure has been revamped with sale of point-of-sale and currency businesses.

Reliance Capital CEO Sam Ghosh said the business was recast on the lines of other companies.

“Reliance Money intends to focus on profitable growth and not just the top line. The focus will be on broking and distribution and we intend to exit some non-core businesses built up in the portfolio over the last three years. The company will also add investment banking and wealth management as new verticals,” a Reliance spokesperson said.