Okay, we still have Shriam, Subramanyam, Amit Tandan and Abizer Dvanchji with us on the show. Abizar, you know, Kiki Mystery is stepping in just for a... actually gentlemen do hold on. We have Mr. Sashidhar Jagdishan who is the MD and CEO of HDFC Bank joining in on the phone line. Mr. Jagdishan, thank you very much for your time here. Let me just get right to it. You called it an unfortunate event on the con call earlier, but you know, Atanu Chakravarti actually served alongside you since 2021. He sat in the same boardroom meetings, reviewed the same numbers. And he's left citing practices not in congruence with his values. As the person who was running this bank day-to-day, did you not have any indication that this was coming?
No, we had no such indication. My surprise is akin to what the other board members also experienced yesterday when this came as a huge surprise to all of us. And actually, most of the board members did ask him to specify if at all there are any concerns. He did say that he has none to share. So we did sort of persuade if he could remove some of the contentious lines, but I guess he felt that that was his calling and it's something that is innocuous, so he wanted to keep that as it is. I know that these lines did sort of cause a little bit of a stir amongst the minds of the directors, and you can see how the entire investor community has also reacted to this. But I guess the foundation of the company continues to be intact. You've heard the new interim part-time chairman Kiki coming out accepting the position, which itself is a great testimony of the strength and the resilience of the conduct of the institution. Surely in any institution there will be errors and omissions and issues which need to be addressed with a defined timeline. No one can say that there are zero issues, especially when you're running a very extremely large bank. But the icing on the cake was the testimony from the regulator this morning as we were going through these various calls, where I saw a statement from the regulator which backed the franchise to the hilt based on their observations and their inspections over a long period of time.
Mr. Jagdishan, since we understand there was friction between Mr. Chakravarati's style of working and perhaps what was expected out of that non-executive position, just for the benefit of our viewers, if you could elaborate on how your working relationship... how would you describe your working relationship with Mr. Atanu Chakravarti given that he spent all this time since 2021 working with you?
No, no, there was no friction. See, in a very good governance model, people have to... and we are a democracy and we are a democratic institution. So, people will have to have views. Some of the views we may agree, some of the views we may not agree. That cannot be construed as friction. It is good governance. So, that's part one. Part two is I think I have a style of engaging with people. I have been engaging with the chairman and the board members very frequently and regularly. Yes, there are points that I may not agree with all the decisions or the views, and that is something that I'm not apologetic about. But having said that, this is normal in any organization, in any good governing organization. So, I must say and I must acknowledge that I have a lot of respect for some of the thought processes and ideas that he brought into the governance and oversight function. We have a lot of takeaways and something that I think I'm happy to say that the organization has institutionalized the same. So it's been extremely cordial. It's not what one makes out to be as very... what is the word you use? Sorry.
Friction, between your two working styles.
No, no, I don't think that can be termed as friction. But yes, views where I have a different thought process, I will agree. I did agree to disagree. Yeah.
Mr. Jagdishan, if you could also address some of these concerns that have been voiced over social media regarding the sale of HDB Financial, which eventually of course had to go IPO. That there were disagreements with Atanu Chakravarti, especially in relation with Mr. Keki Mistry as well, that that was one of the big reasons for his disagreements with the working of the management. And some of these ideas on the HDB issue specifically, was there a concern that was raised by Mr. Chakravarti? Did he differ with the view of the bank on how to proceed on that matter?
See, I think it's very unfair to say that is the reason of disagreement or one of the reasons for disagreement. We had a very... the board-appointed committee which looked into the disinvestment or partial disinvestment of HDB and their IPO as well. I think it was a very well-conducted and well... and Kiki was the chairman of the committee. And I think as I had mentioned, the principles of the institution has been very free and fair expression of views. So the committee obviously had a certain set of recommendations which were put up to the board. So now if the board has... the larger board may have had views on some of the decisions of the committee, but that's all right. I mean, that is not something that one would term as the reasons for disagreement etc. These are things sometimes we agree, sometimes we don't agree. Sometimes the board or the management puts up something and they may not agree, that's all right. But the process that was followed was actually very professional and extremely tight, and it's not something that one should even comment on the credibility of the process in that committee.
Mr. Jagishan, so you yourself are acknowledging there were differences when it came to the way the bank went ahead with the HDB Financial issue. To your mind, while you're calling some of these a healthy working relationship, the disagreements do happen. To your mind, what may have then sparked this move? I mean, if disagreements were healthy and they had been continuing for all of these years, why resign today or why resign on the 17th of March suddenly?
Ru, I would be extremely happy if someone can tell us, because all the other board members, the remaining board members also have expressed very similar kind of surprise as to why this has happened all of a sudden. Probably I'm not privy to any of these thought processes. We did try and extract that from Mr. Chakravarti yesterday, but I guess he said that the time has come or that's his calling at that point in time, which is the reason why he stepped up.
So you would not attribute it to any one particular tipping point or which really pushed him on the edge to resign? You would not be able to attribute it to any particular reason?
I'm not aware of any reason or any specific instance or any specific matter that has triggered this. At least I'm not aware.
Mr. Jagishan, what does the bank now need to do to assuage various stakeholders that everything is okay? We of course saw that rare statement coming in from RBI in support of the bank. You yourself has clarified this matter several times, but do you think as a next step an independent investigation is something that is required to look into some of the concerns that may or may not have been pointed out by Atanu Chakravarti? What is the next step you'll take to assuage stakeholders?
No, surely proactively of course talking to investors, talking to media, which is what we're doing today, is a very important part of the process. Number two, I would guess proactively we would undertake some amount of... because most of the issues are very transparent and any issue that is flagged off by the first line of defense or the second line of defense or the third line of defense, or to any of the committees, is something that is addressed periodically and in a defined time frame. So having said that, we would like to re-examine in our own way as to what are the decisions that have been taken, what are the decisions which have not been agreed upon etc., to try and see whether there are any things that we need to tighten or enrich. These are things that I'm sure between the management and the board we will be planning to do that at some point in time.
And Mr. Jagishan, given that your current tenure is set to end in October, while the board or at least Mr. Keki Mistry on the call said the NRC will recommend your name, have you yourself discussed the matter? Are you willing to stay on as CEO for another full term?
See, there is a process. I respect that process. The NRC will try and follow that process and recommend to the board, who will then recommend to the regulator for approvals. If you're asking me whether I would like to be a part of that process as a participant, as one of the candidates, absolutely.
