Vora takes over as chief of IDBI home finance arm

P P Vora, chairman and managing director Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI), has been made chairman of the institution's new housing finance subsidiary. Industry sources said Vora may also be made non-executive chairman of IDBI Bank.

IDBI Bank has been without a chairman after M S Verma, the former Telecom Regulatory Authority of India chairman, stepped down earlier this year.

Vora's tenure as CMD of IDBI will come to an end in September-end. The Reserve Bank of India had earlier expressed its reservations about making Vora the non-executive chairman of the bank.

Once Vora retires in September from IDBI, there may not be any hitch in making the chairman of the bank.

"Earlier it was a corporate governance issue as he was the CMD of the parent institution. Once he retires from IDBI, this issue will not crop up," a source familiar with the development said.

Vora had on Friday announced that a search committee was being appointed for finalising a permanent CEO for the bank.

This was even as Ajay Bimbhet was given additional charge as the acting chief executive officer (CEO) of IDBI Bank on Wednesday.

The IDBI board discussed the conversion process of IDBI into a bank on Friday. However, with Parliament not taking a decision on IDBI Corporatisation Bill, the conversion is likely to get delayed as the Bill can only be passed in the winter session of Parliament.

McKinsey, SBI Capital Markets, IBM, PricewaterhouseCoopers and other consultants will make another round of presentations to IDBI.

"There has been a change of scope for the consultants as instead of a full fledged commercial bank, the new avatar will concentrate more on development finances and corporate banking (term loans)," IDBI officials said.

The board meeting on Friday discussed hiring of professionals from other private banks after floating a voluntary retirement scheme. IDBI is looking at opening 100-150 branches in the next two years.