Ravneet Singh Gill will replace founder Rana Kapoor as Yes Bank’s managing director and chief executive officer. The country’s fourth-largest private-sector lender announced on Thursday that it had received approval from the Reserve Bank of India for the appointment.
Gill is currently the India head of Germany-headquartered Deutsche Bank. He will take over by March 1 from Kapoor, who will step down later this month after the country’s central bank denied him another full three-year term. Kapoor has led Yes Bank since setting it up in 2004.
“The Bank has received RBI approval for its new MD & CEO, Mr. Ravneet Singh Gill for him to join on or before March 1, 2019,” Yes Bank stated in a stock-exchange filing while announcing its earnings for the third quarter of the current fiscal. It posted a 7% fall in net profit as it set aside higher provisions and reported an exposure of Rs 2,530 crore to the debt-strapped Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) group.
Yes Bank’s board will convene on January 29 to finalise the interim transition, it added.
Gill has been with Deutsche Bank for nearly 28 years and took charge as its India chief executive in August 2012. During his career, he has handled capital markets, treasury, structured finance, foreign exchange, transaction banking, risk management and private banking.
Shares of Yes Bank surged as much as 19.1% on the BSE after the announcement in their sharpest intra-day jump since September 2013. They ended more than 8% higher at Rs 213.85 apiece.
Earlier, the RBI had cut short Kapoor’s latest term to five months amid gross divergences in the classification of non-performing assets (NPAs) worth Rs 4,173 crore and Rs 6,355 crore for the financial years 2015-16 and 2016-17 respectively.
The regulator had pointed out the divergences in its annual audit, after which the bank’s governance had come into question.
In September, the RBI’s move to ask Kapoor to step down by the end of January had sent Yes Bank’s stock plunging and triggered several resignations from its board including that of chairman Ashok Chawla. The central bank had asked the lender to find a new CEO by February 1.
Yes Bank had appointed executive search firm Korn Ferry to help its recruitment panel, which included former Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority chairman TS Vijayan and three members of the board’s nomination and remuneration committee — Brahm Dutt, Mukesh Sabharwal and Subhash Kalia.
The bank sent its three recommendations to the RBI after its board meeting on January 9. Apart from Gill, Yes Bank’s executive director Rajat Monga was believed to be in the race for the top post.
Besides Yes Bank, there have been top leadership changes at two other private-sector lenders in recent months.
Shikha Sharma exited as CEO of Axis Bank late last year after she, too, was denied an extension by the banking regulator.
Chanda Kochhar stepped down as ICICI Bank’s CEO and MD in October after allegations regarding dealings with the Videocon Group and a company in which her husband had a stake.
On Thursday, Kochhar and her husband Deepak were named as accused in a FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the case.