Shailendra Bhandari, the managing director and CEO of private lender ING Vysya Bank Ltd, is stepping down from his role to pursue new challenges, as per a stock market disclosure. Bhandari will continue to serve till January 31, 2015.
The board of directors at their meeting held on October 28, 2014, accepted his resignation and identified Uday Sareen, currently deputy CEO and wholesale bank head, as a successor to Bhandari, the company said.
Sareen joined ING Vysya Bank in July 2007 as country head, retail and private banking. In December 2012, he was promoted as chief strategy officer and has been working as deputy CEO since April this year. Prior to joining ING Vysya Bank, he was working with Citigroup as senior vice-president. He holds an MBA degree from Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi.
"Shailendra expressed his desire to pursue new challenges. The board decided that as long as stability was ensured for our shareholders, customers, partners and employees, we would honour his wish," said M Damodaran, on behalf of the bank's board.
Bhandari did not give details on his next moves but said, “I just felt that I needed to do something different with the skills and talents I have developed. So, after over five years as MD and CEO, I believe this is the right time to pass on the baton.”
Bhandari had joined the bank as managing director and CEO in August 2009. The IIM-A grad was previously the head of private equity unit at Tata Capital Limited. In the past, he has also served as MD and CEO of Centurion Bank of Punjab and was credited for successfully turning around Centurion Bank. During 2000 to 2004 he was MD and CEO of Prudential ICCI Asset Management.
Prior to that, he was part of the core team that helped set up HDFC Bank in 1994 as treasurer and executive director. During his five-year tenure at HDFC, he established and ran the capital markets and private banking businesses and was also responsible for managing liquidity and price risks for the bank’s balance sheet. He is also an ex-Citi banker, having spent 12 years in senior management positions in treasury, operations, fund management, securities and investments after getting a start as a forex dealer involved in US dollar-rupee trading back in 1982.
ING Vysya Bank, formerly known as Vysya Bank, is under Dutch financial services firm ING Group. ING Group owns around 43 per cent in the public-listed bank. The bank counts PE investors like ChrysCap, ICICI Venture, Norwest Venture Partners and PremjiInvest as shareholders.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
