RBI Approves Ex-Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar As HDFC Bank Chairman

HDFC Bank on Wednesday said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved the appointment of Rajiv Kumar as chairman of the lender for three years.

"In furtherance to our intimation dated June 29, 2026, we wish to inform you that pursuant to an application made by the bank to the Reserve Bank of India, the RBI vide its communication dated 15 July 2026, has approved the appointment of Rajiv Kumar as the Part Time Chairman of the bank," the bank said in a regulatory filing.

On June 29, the board of HDFC Bank had approved the appointment of Kumar as part-time chairman and additional (independent) director. The approval came three days after an external legal review cleared the bank in the controversy surrounding the exit of former chairman Atanu Chakraborty.

Kumar, a former chief election commissioner (CEC) and financial services secretary, will succeed interim chairman Keki Mistry.

Second IAS Officer To Hold The Post

Kumar will be the second IAS officer to hold the position after Chakraborty, a retired 1985-batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre, stepped down in March 2026, citing concerns over "certain happenings and practices within the bank." Kumar is a 1984-batch IAS officer from the Jharkhand cadre.

His appointment comes ahead of the board's decision on managing director and chief executive officer Sashidhar Jagdishan's reappointment, which is due for review when his current term ends on October 26, 2026. Mint had earlier reported that the board was awaiting findings of an external legal review before deciding on his reappointment.

Kumar served as secretary of the department of financial services (DFS) from 2017 to 2020. In that role, he worked on curbing shell companies and black money in the financial services system, and facilitated restrictions on Ponzi schemes through The Banning of Unregulated Deposits Schemes Act, 2019.

He also led a clean-up of public sector bank balance sheets, focusing on profitability and asset quality. This included the ₹3-trillion recapitalisation of public sector banks, consolidation of 27 PSU banks into 12 stronger entities, an increase in deposit insurance cover from ₹1 lakh to ₹5 lakh, and rationalisation of regional rural banks (RRBs) into a one state-one RRB structure.