MD, Chief Executive Officer & Director, HDFC Bank
Not Yet Made A Recommendation To RBI On Chairman: HDFC Bank To CNBC-TV18
#4QWithCNBCTV18 | HDFC Bank Q4 Profit In-Line; NII Misses Estimates
Sashidhar Jagdishan, MD & CEO of HDFC Bank tells @CNBCTV18News' @_ritusingh
Bank has not yet made a recommendation to RBI on Chairman; We are rooting for Mr. Keki Mistry
Will need to conclude more processes and deliberate more before we can send names.
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About Sashidhar Jagdishan
Sashidhar Jagdishan, Managing Director and CEO of HDFC Bank, addressed the bank's Q1 FY27 earnings, describing the period as "tough" and noting a 20% mix in deposits, though he said such trends tend to normalize over the medium to long term. He stated the bank's focus would remain on retail due to advantages in deposits and cost of funds, while also needing to serve capital markets and corporate segments. Jagdishan said margin was not his primary focus, as he expects it to play out over time, and emphasized a strategy
Transcript (5 segments)
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Interviewer0:00
Mr. Jagdishan, it's a welcome change to have you address the media. I think it's the first time since you've taken charge as the CEO that you're addressing us on an earnings call. If I may start by asking about that, what drove that change? And secondly, since you spoke about the Dubai matter in some detail, you referred to the court ruling which from our understanding purely deals with the subject of jurisdiction. That's where it was limited to, but besides that, in terms of the action taken by the bank, we understand about 16 employees, past and present, were taken action on in some form or the other. Would you now be able to say that the matter is closed? That the action that the bank had to take has been completed? And any timeline you could give us on the legal review as far as the former chairman's exit is concerned? Any update on that front? So, that was the first question on some of these commentary if you can give us, and then I come to the numbers.
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Sashidhar Jagdishan1:02
So, on the first question, obviously, our philosophy has been that we always listen to our customers and stakeholders. So, I have listened to you all, and that's one of the reasons why I am doing this. So, thank you for that. But it does not mean that I will get on to this so-called interaction on an ongoing basis. I thought this is a full year FY26 event, which is a full year event, and it is appropriate for me to come here at this juncture. And probably, of course, it had also some certain events which had happened in the recent past, so it was important for me to provide that kind of visibility as well.
On the second aspect of it is on the NCDRC matter. You're right. One of the first things that they talk about is jurisdiction that India is not the jurisdiction for that complaint, and it had to move to the overseas jurisdiction where the event had happened. But, having said that, they go on to spell out there because they have the entire history of the case of the complaint, and therefore, it was very interesting for us to see. I think if I'm not mistaken, between clause 46 and 66 of the order. And if you really look at it, it sort of highlights, which is what I said in my opening remarks, that the complainants were not retail or uninformed investors, and they had clear intent to pursue high yield, high risk investment products. And of course, it goes on to say a lot more things, but I've just summarized into a small statement. So, maybe you may want to look at that aspect as well.
The third question is on the chairman's exit, when the legal review would be completed, and given that Mr. Mistry's appointment was only for a 3-month term, how soon will we be hearing of the bank's decision on the next chairman, or has that already been deliberated upon? No, even on the legal review, as I had mentioned, this is in progress. Obviously, the volume of data that the council have to go through is rather voluminous. And that's why probably it's taking time. But as and when it sort of comes out, I think the bank will come into the open to provide a summary of the same. Frankly, I don't have visibility of when that's going to get over, but I wouldn't say it's going to take too long. At the same time, I'm not sort of expecting too short a period as well.
As regards the chairman appointment, as I had mentioned in the previous calls, both Kaizad and I were there. We are all rooting for Mr. Mistry for the post, but of course, we do believe that there are certain processes that we need to conclude before we can even put forth for the deliberation in the NRC and at the board. And before we can provide recommendations to the regulator. I think that process, we do have sufficient time for that, but it's in progress. And the board, as Kaizad was mentioning, like in my matter, they're seized of this matter, and this will be taken up in due course.