Too many episodes of financial mismanagement: Where does the buck stop?

Should the resignation of senior bankers on moral grounds draw the curtains on mismanagement and accounting discrepancies?

Last Monday, April 28, IndusInd Bank Ltd’s deputy chief executive officer resigned. A day later, its managing director and CEO followed suit, “owning moral responsibility” for “various acts of omission/commission”. The bank’s chief financial officer had resigned in January.

 

This spate of resignations at the top was triggered by discrepancies in the accounting of derivative transactions. The deputy CEO was heading the bank’s global market division of which derivatives portfolio is a part.

 

Investigations are on to ascertain the impact on the bank’s balance sheet.

 

In a separate incident, an inspection by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in February