MUMBAI: The troubled IndusInd Bank, which has been headless since late April when the scam-tainted chief executive Sumant Kathpalia and his deputy Arun Khurana resigned owning moral responsibility for the massive losses in its forex derivatives trading book, has reportedly shortlisted three names--Rajiv Anand of Axis Bank, Anup Saha of Bajaj Finance, and Rahul Shukla of HDFC Bank--to man the top deck.
While Rajiv Anand is currently the deputy managing director of Axis Bank, Anup Saha is the managing director of Bajaj Finance, and Rahul Shukla is the group head of commercial and rural banking at HDFC Bank and is on a sabbatical from the largest private sector bank.
While Sumant Kathpalia resigned on April 29, his deputy Arun Khurana did so a day before. Both had cited moral responsibility for the scam for the decisions to leave, which came in well after seven weeks since the crisis came out. Both have also been banned by the market regulator from the market for insider trading—they had pocketed over Rs 157 crore from selling bank’s shares in 2023-24.
Since their resignations, the bank is run by an RBI-approved executive committee comprising its consumer banking head Soumitra Sen and the chief administrative officer Anil Rao. According to a source in the know of the development, the board of the Hinduja group-promoted bank is expected to clear these names and submit the list to the Reserve Bank for approval any day now before the regulatory deadline of June 30.
The regulator has also asked the board to suggest probable names only from outside IndusInd Bank. During a recent analyst call, IndusInd chairman Sunil Mehta had assured stakeholders that the names would be submitted well before the deadline.
The upcoming leadership change is seen as a crucial development for the bank, which has been in focus since early March when it was forced by the RBI to inform all stakeholders that it made accounting mistakes in the forex derivatives books for several years and that it would have to make provisions to the tune of 1.35% of its net worth as of December 2024 when it was Rs 64,000 crore.
But the bank on May 22 said while announcing the March quarter earnings that the losses were much higher at Rs 2,329 crore. It had booked a net profit of Rs 2,349 crore in the year-ago period. Most of the loss was due to the impairment in its forex derivatives book, which the management first said would be only around Rs 1,600 crore.
The lender reported net interest income of just Rs 3,048 crore in Q4 a whopping 43% less from Rs 5,376 crore a year ago.The 59-year-old Rajiv Anand of Axis Bank has over 35 years of experience in the financial services sector. He began his journey at Axis Asset Management Company in 2009 as its founding managing director and chief executive. In 2013, he moved to Axis Bank as president of retail banking, eventually joining the board in the same year.
In 2018, he was appointed to lead the wholesale banking and since December 2021 he has been serving as deputy managing director, overseeing several critical functions including wholesale banking, digital banking, marketing, and corporate communications. Anand is set to retire from the bank in August.
Anup Saha of Bajaj Finance has over 30 years experience of which 25 have been in the financial services space. He had spent 14 years at ICICI Bank before moving to Bajaj Finance in 2017. Over the years, he managed a wide spectrum of businesses such as credit cards, auto loans, mortgages, and structured finance, contributing significantly to the largest and the most profitable non-banking company’s retail growth strategy. He was elevated to the top job only in April 2025 for a five-year tenor.
The 55-year-old Rahul Shukla of HDFC Bank has joined bank in 2018 to head its corporate & business banking. With more than 30 years of industry experience, Shukla began with Citibank in 1991 and held several senior roles, including head of corporate banking for South Asia, overseeing operations in India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka and was also part of Citibank’s global corporate banking operating committee.
The IndusInd counter is 42% below its 52-week high of Rs 1,514.95 recorded in June 2024. Following the accounting scam announcement on March 10, the scrip had plunged to a low of Rs 605.40 on March 11, losing as much as 27% on a single day.
Indusind came under intense regulatory scrutiny following a series of financial and regulatory setbacks on March 10, 2025 when it was forced to admit a massive accounting lapse amounting to Rs 1,979 crore in its forex derivatives portfolio. This was followed by findings from an internal audit that uncovered Rs 674 crore erroneously recorded as interest income from its microfinance segment.
Additionally, the review flagged Rs 595 crore under unsubstantiated balances classified under other assets on the balance sheet, raising concerns over its corporate governance practices and financial reporting standards. These revelations were accompanied by regulatory action from the Securities and Exchange Board, which barred Kathpalia, Khurana and two other senior executives from accessing the securities market over alleged insider trading involving the bank’s shares.