Carol Furtado to be Ujjivan SFB's interim CEO after surprise exit of Chugh

Ujjivan Small Finance has appointed Carol Furtado as the officer on special duty (OSD) of the bank, with effect from August 26, 2021, after the surprise resignation of the current chief executive officer (CEO) Nitin Chugh, citing personal reasons. 

In a meeting held on Wednesday, the bank’s board of directors decided that she will also take over as the interim CEO of the bank post Chugh’s exit from the bank, effective September 30. 

In an exchange notification, the bank has said Furtado will be leading the charge of handling the day-to-day operations of the bank and has been authorised to exercise such powers and perform such functions on behalf of the bank which was granted and was being exercised by Chugh in his capacity as MD & CEO of the bank. 

Her appointment as the interim CEO is, however, subject to the approval banking regulator. Furtado is currently serving as the CEO of Ujjivan Financial Services, the holding company of the bank, a post she has to resign from to be appointed as the OSD of the bank. 

She had worked with foreign banks before joining Ujjivan in 2005. She was part of the bank till April 2021 as the head of the operations of the bank. She has previously worked in ANZ Grindlays Bank, Bank Muscat S.A.O.G., and Centurion Bank Limited.

Chugh, who was appointed MD & CEO of the small finance bank in December 2019, resigned from his position last week, amid a sharp spike in bad assets of the lender in the quarter gone by.

Not only Chugh, but the lender has seen big churn at the top with six board-level resignations and the chief financial officer (CFO). The CFO resigned soon after the first quarter ended in June 2021. The bank has also seen a spate of resignations at the middle level and the field staff. 

Samit Ghosh, non-executive chairman, Ujjivan Financial Services, has iterated that the portfolio quality of the lender and the high level of attrition in the last six months are his two biggest concerns, which have to be addressed. 

In Q1 of FY22, the lender suffered a loss of Rs 233 crore due to heavy provisioning for its bad assets, which saw a 236 per cent year-on-year (YoY) rise. Asset quality of the lender also deteriorated sharply, with its gross non-performing assets (gross NPAs) rising to 9.8 per cent at the end of the June quarter (Q1 of FY22) from 1 per cent in Q1 of FY21.