HDFC Bank names Sukthankar as dy MD

Move seen as first step towards finding Puri's successor

HDFC Bank appears to have made the first move towards finding a successor to Aditya Puri, its managing director and the longest serving bank chief in the country. India's second largest private sector lender on Tuesday named Paresh Sukthankar as deputy managing director of the bank for a period of three years.

This is the first time the bank has appointed a deputy managing director. Sukthankar's appointment as deputy managing director till December 23, 2016, is subject to approval of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and shareholders, the bank said in a notice on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

Puri has been the bank's managing director since its inception in 1994. His current term ends on October 31, 2015.

HDFC Bank's rival ICICI Bank had initially appointed its current chief executive, Chanda Kochhar, as the joint managing director for a period of two years. Kochhar was the joint managing director and chief financial officer of ICICI Bank from 2007 to 2009. She became the managing director and chief executive of ICICI Bank in 2009.

Sukthankar has also been with HDFC Bank since its inception. Prior to this appointment, he was the executive director of the bank. He had overall approval, supervision and control responsibilities for the bank’s credit and risk management function — covering the corporate and retail credit portfolios as well as the treasury activities. He also had supervisory responsibility for the finance and human resources (HR) functions and led various strategic initiatives of the bank.

He is known in the industry for his cautious and conservative way of doing business. “Paresh is a tough task master but he never loses his cool. He believes what HDFC Bank has achieved is not only because what it has done, but also because what it has not done,” a person who earlier worked with the bank told Business Standard, requesting anonymity. Prior to joining HDFC Bank, Sukthankar worked in Citibank for almost a decade. He was involved in various functions including corporate banking, risk management, financial control and credit administration. He has been and is a member of various committees formed by RBI and Indian Banks' Association (IBA).

Separately, HDFC Bank said it had also appointed Kaizad Bharucha as an additional director and executive director for a period of three years.