Harpal Dugal To Take Up Singapore Posting At Stanchart

Harpal Dugal, general manager and chief executive officer of consumer banking at Standared Chartered Bank, is set to join as global head of business value leadership strategy in Singapore.

In his new assignment, Dugal will report to Mike DeNoma, group executive director of the bank. The offer letter was delivered at Dugal's residence as he has been on leave since October 5.

Dugal said he is considering the offer but refused to give any time-frame for taking up the new assignment. Vishu Ramchandran, StanChart (south-east Asia), is heading consumer banking in India for the time being till Dugal's successor is identified.

It is widely perceived that Dugal was not happy with the new "alignment of structures" in the proposed StanChart-ANZ Grindlays merged entity. He was also not in favour of cutting staff across-the-board as the credit card and other retail businesses need manpower.

StanChart regional manager in India Jaspal Bindra said last year at the time of the merger that it had been decided that the bank would cut flab and Dugal's decision had nothing to do with this.

"He is looking for an overseas assignment. He had given the retail business a solid foundation ... His leaving is a disruption...," Bindra said.

Sources close to Dugal said he was not happy at the way things were shaping up and was looking for new challenges. He joined StanChart in February 1997 and witnessed turbulent times.

He raised the 2.6 lakh credit card base of the bank to 1.3 million in four years. He also led the consumer banking division from the front, contributing $70 million to the bank's net profit last year.

Perceived to be a hard task master, Dugal turned around StanChart's consumer business which got the distinction of becoming one of the six important business groups in the bank's global operations.