HDFC Bank, India’s largest private sector lender, is changing hands at the top. Sashidhar Jagdishan completes his tenure as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at the close of business on 26 October 2026. Anup Bagchi takes over the next day, 27 October, for a three-year term running to 26 October 2029.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approved Bagchi’s appointment and his remuneration on 1 October under Section 35B of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, according to the bank’s stock exchange filing. The board inducted him as an Additional Director from 2 October. His appointment as MD and CEO still needs shareholder approval.
The first external CEO
Bagchi will be the first chief executive brought in from outside the bank. He has spent more than three decades in financial services, almost all of it in the ICICI Group, which he joined in 1992. Over that time he has worked across treasury, retail and wholesale banking, investment banking, capital markets and digital financial services. He has served as MD and CEO of ICICI Securities and as an Executive Director of ICICI Bank, and he moves across from his role as MD and CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance. He is an engineer from IIT Kanpur and a management graduate from IIM Bangalore.
Under India’s banking rules, a bank must recommend at least two candidates to the RBI for the top job. HDFC Bank sent the names of Bagchi and Deputy Managing Director Kaizad Bharucha.
Listening first
Speaking at the bank’s Q2 FY27 media interaction, Bagchi said he would begin by meeting regulators, customers, shareholders and other stakeholders before setting priorities. “Very near term, I’m going to engage with all the regulators, customers, stakeholders, and gather insights,” he said, as reported by ETBFSI. He called the bank “solid” and “very sound”, and said much of the balance sheet adjustment that followed the merger with HDFC Ltd is now behind it, though “some more work” remains.
Jagdishan, who succeeded Aditya Puri in October 2020, chose not to seek a third term. He described it as a personal decision after 31 years with the institution and said he was leaving with “pride and satisfaction”.
A wider reshuffle
The CEO change is part of a broader rebuild of HDFC Bank’s senior leadership:
- Deputy MD Kaizad Bharucha, who joined the bank in 1995, will step down on 31 December 2026.
- Puneet Sharma, who joined as CFO-designate on 1 September, takes over as Chief Financial Officer from Srinivasa Vaidyanathan on 1 December 2026.
- Executive Director V Srinivasa Rangan has been reappointed for another year, to 22 November 2027.
- Chief Credit Officer Jimmy Tata has been proposed as a Whole-time Director, subject to RBI approval.
- The board has created one more Whole-time Director position, to be filled in consultation with the new MD and CEO.
What the new CEO inherits
Bagchi takes charge at a demanding moment. HDFC Bank’s shares were trading close to their 52-week low ahead of the handover. The Hindu BusinessLine reported the stock was down roughly 30 per cent so far this year, and that recent declines followed a media report on an internal leak investigation involving two senior executives.
For the wider BFSI sector, the handover is worth watching. It brings an outside leader into the country’s most closely followed private bank, and it sets up a near-complete refresh of the top team within a few months. Investors, depositors and rivals will be looking at how quickly the new leadership sets out its agenda on growth, deposits, margins and governance once the listening phase ends.
