Following dismal performance in 2013-14, Sanjiv Bhasin quits as DBS CEO

Former Rabobank India chief executive Surojit Shome will be replacing him

Sanjiv Bhasin has quit as India chief executive officer (CEO) of DBS Bank after heading it for almost seven years. Surojit Shome, the former Rabobank India CEO will replace him.

“After almost seven years as CEO of DBS India, Sanjiv has decided to leave… he would like to pursue different interests. His last day in the bank will be 30 June. Pending regulatory approval, Surojit Shome, the former CEO and country head of Rabobank India will assume the role of CEO of DBS India with effect from 15 April,” said the Singapore-headquartered lender said in a statement.

Shome, who worked at Rabobank since 2009, quit last week. Before Rabobank, he was the managing director and head of investment banking at Nomura Group.

Bhasin, now 60, had joined DBS Bank from Rabo India Finance, where he was the chief executive officer and managing director from 2004 to 2008. Before that, he was the chief operating officer of HSBC India.

Rabo India Finance Limited is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Rabobank International.

Sources said Bhasin’s exit follows the DBS’s dismal results last financial year. Its net profit fell to just Rs 2 crore in 2013-14 from Rs 289 crore the previous financial year.

This was on the back of an increase in provisions which rose to Rs 516 crore in March 2014 from Rs 169 crore in the same period the previous year. The rise in provisions was necessitated by the mounting bad loans.

DBS’s net non-performing assets (NPAs) rose to 10.21 per cent in the year-ended March 2014, up from just 2.37 per cent in the previous financial year.

DBS is one of the few foreign banks in India that has expressed an interest to convert its branches into wholly owned subsidiaries after the Reserve Bank of India issued the final guidelines in November 2013. However, the bank has been waiting for the priority sector lending norms to be relaxed, which will make the wholly owned subsidiary route financially viable.

The bank entered India in 1994 and set up its first branch a year later. At present, it has 12 branches and 31 ATMs in the country.