RBL Bank board approves MD & CEO Vishwavir Ahuja's request to proceed on leave with immediate effect

Vishwavir Ahuja was leading RBL Bank as MD & CEO since 2010.

The board of private lender RBL Bank on December 25 approved the request of bank's managing director and chief executive officer Vishwavir Ahuja to "proceed on leave with immediate effect".

The board has appointed current executive director Rajeev Ahuja as the "interim MD & CEO with immediate effect", the bank informed the stock exchanges.

Rajeev Ahuja's appointment is subject to "regulatory and other approvals", it said, further adding that the "terms and conditions of his appointment, such as remuneration, would remain unchanged".

The decisions were taken at the meeting of board of directors held earlier in the day, the regulatory filing noted.

Vishwavir Ahuja had been leading RBL Bank as its MD & CEO since 2010.

Earlier this year, RBL had sought approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to appoint Ahuja for another three-year term at the bank's helm. The regulator, however, had allowed RBL to extend his term by one year starting from June 30, 2021.

Notably, Ahuja is counted among the country's veteran bankers with close to four decades of experience in banking across finance, risk management, HR and business management.

Before RBL, Ahuja was the MD & CEO of Bank of America, India from 2001 to 2009.

The announcement of Ahuja's leave request being approved came shortly after RBL, in another regulatory filing, said the RBI has appointed its chief general manager Yogesh K Dayal as an additional director on the board of RBL.

Dayal's tenure would last "for a period of two years with effect from December 24, 2021 till December 23, 2023 or till further orders, whichever is earlier", it said.

RBL also told the stock exchanges that its business and financial trajectory continues to be on improving trend. "The financials of the bank remain robust with healthy capital adequacy of 16.3 percent, high levels of liquidity as reflected through liquidity coverage ratio of 155 percent, stable net NPA of 2.14 percent, credit deposit ratio of 74.1 percent and leverage ratio of 10.0%, for the quarter ended September 30, 2021," it said.