Sandeep Das likely to head StanC's private banking business in India

Standard Chartered Bank is likely to appoint Sandeep Das as head of its private banking business in India, sources said. It has been vacant since Soumya Rajan left.

Standard Chartered Bank declined to comment for this story. Das could not be reached. This will be the second top appointment in the bank’s consumer banking division this month.

Earlier this month, it appointed Sanjeeb Chaudhuri, who was with Citibank, as the regional head for South Asia and group chief marketing officer for consumer banking.

Das is currently heading StanChart’s premium banking business. He was earlier the head of the wholesale banking division.

His appointment comes when StanChart’s private banking business is recovering from a crisis. Some of the bank's private banking clients had alleged the lender mis-sold debentures to them with a promise of assured rate of return, failing which it would buy these back. Under Indian laws, a bank is not authorised to provide a repurchase option for debentures.

Subsequently, StanChart brought in external investors, including non-banking finance companies and investment banks, to buy back these debentures. It is believed to have incurred a loss of about Rs 2 crore because of this.