Former RBI Deputy Governor Anand Sinha joins IDFC Bank board

This comes after Vinod Rai, the former CAG chief, stepped down after serving on the board for a year

IDFC Bank, the newest lender in the country, has appointed former Reserve Bank of India deputy governor Anand Sinha to the bank's board. In a notice to exchanges, the lender said Sinha would be joining as an additional director in the category of independent director on the board.

His appointment comes into effect from August 1 (Monday). This comes after Vinod Rai, the former comptroller and auditor general of India, who served as a nominee director representing IDFC Limited on the board of IDFC Bank, stepped down after serving on the board for a year.

“Rai was appointed as the chairman of the Banks Board Bureau. Hence, to avoid any conflict of interest, he has resigned as a director of IDFC Bank,” the bank said.

However, Rai will still continue to be non-executive independent chairman of IDFC Limited.

Sinha, in his earlier appointment with the central bank was also overseeing the final licence to new universal banks that included IDFC and Bandhan.

In his role as the Deputy Governor between January 2011-2014 he was in-charge of regulation of commercial banks, Non-Banking Financial Companies, Urban Cooperative Banks and Information Technology, among others. He was also the RBI's nominee director on the boards of Dena Bank, Allahabad Bank, Bank of Baroda, Indian Overseas Bank, Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation etc.

At the moment, IDFC Bank is believed to be mulling a merger with its parent after the new on-tap universal banking guidelines came out that state that the converting entities that do not have any other group entities do not need to have a non-operative financial holding company (NOFHC) structure. However, the lender has added that the board is yet to meet and they haven't arrived at a  decision yet.

In the April-June quarter, IDFC Bank has reported a 60 per cent rise in its net profit to Rs 265 crore, compared with the January-March quarter. The bank remains well capitalised with a capital adequacy ratio of 20.39 per cent