ICICI's ED to join Goldman Sachs

Sonjoy Chatterjee, executive director (ED) of ICICI Bank, has put in his papers and will soon join US-based investment bank Goldman Sachs in India, according to a person familiar with the development.

Chatterjee will be joining as co-chief executive officer (CEO) at Goldman Sachs in India, alongside Brooks Entwistle.

When contacted, an ICICI Bank spokesperson declined to comment.

This is the third high-profile exit from ICICI Bank since it was announced that Chanda Kochhar would succeed KV Kamath as CEO.

Shikha Sharma, the erstwhile CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, left in June last year to take over as CEO of Axis Bank.

Renuka Ramanth, head of ICICI Venture, quit to set up her own private equity firm, Multile Asset Management.

Till early this year, Chatterjee was in charge of corporate and investment banking, government banking and international banking businesses of the lender. However, in a major reshuffle conducted earlier this year, he was put in charge of new business initiatives, while Sandeep Bakshi took charge of corporate banking. Vijay Chandok, head of retail, SME and rural banking was deputed to London to head the bank’s international banking operations.

Former ICICI banker Rajeev Sabharwal was brought back from Sequoia Capital and designated as senior general manager in charge of retail banking with the understanding that he would soon be elevated as executive director. Sabharwal is now likely to fill the place left vacant by Chattejee’s exit on the bank’s board.

Maninder Juneja, senior general manager in charge of branch banking, is overseeing Chandok’s non-retail portfolios of rural and SME banking at present.

Chatterjee was just 34 when he was hand-picked by ICICI Bank’s then CEO KV Kamath to set up the bank’s UK subsidiary in 2003. In 2007, he moved back from London to Mumbai to take a seat on the bank’s board as executive director in charge of corporate and investment banking, government banking and international banking.

Chatterjee was tipped to be Kochhar’s second-in-command when the bank undertook a major reshuffle of its top management in April last year. Instead, Kochhar’s previous position of joint managing director was left vacant and Sandeep Bakshi, the then head of ICICI Lombard General Insurance, was named deputy managing director in charge of retail banking.