What are your future plans?
I need to retire and have taken a chance on the bigger strategic role. And if you recall on that, our bank structure is their holding company and holding company is a promoter and has 40% stake in the bank. So, I will like to go to this holding company as a strategic supporter on this group, so that is the reason I decided now to go in there.
And also, there are a good number of senior management people we have already boarded to the bank and they are also setting up the bank and so it is the right time, given we have a very professional team.
What we understood was that you had already applied for extension at Reserve Bank of India. Did any reply come from regulator?
There wasn’t any reply from the regulator. I feel that in the final quarter of the financial year, there is very good business momentum, all the parameters has come very fantastic, I feel that this is the right time I need to decide to hand over my bank to the new management team.
When you talk about new management, we have seen that you have done several hirings from other banks as well in past one or two years. Were you already ready with this plan B of creating a senior management which will be under transition after you and you will hand over the baton to them?
If you see when we are running the bank, we always prepare the team to take over the charge in anybody’s absence. So, in that sense, I have the time of three months. Within the three months, a searching committee will be formed. How they like to process on that, that will take some time.I am sorry, I am asking this question again because for all the market participants, this has come a kind of a surprise that you have decided to retire from the bank after your tenure, everybody was expecting that there might be some extension which you had applied. So, when did that change of thought happen?
No, this was the plan in mind since the last one year. If you look at the total journey of the Bandhan Bank in the last few years it was in a bad situation during covid. The year 2022-23 was a little bit better. And in 23-24, I am fully confident that a very good improvement has come which is near to the pre-pandemic situation.
When you say that you will have a larger role in your new capacity, what does that mean? Will you be chairman of board? How does investors take that signal?
If you see that the structure of Bandhan, Bandhan is a bigger group under the holding company. There is only one subsidiary. I would like to give strategic support to the Bandhan group in a bigger role.