



Out of the driver's seat, Bandhan's Ghosh bats for longer bank CEO tenures for better long-term planning
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Indian bank chiefs will be better off with longer tenures at the helm to help them plan better, said Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, founder of Bandhan Bank and its former chief executive officer (CEO). In an interview to Mint, Ghosh, now chairman of the Bandhan Group, said leaders should get more time at the top, allowing them to bring a long-term perspective to the role.
Ghosh, who stepped down as managing director (MD) and CEO of Bandhan Bank in July 2024, was referring to the practice of giving bank chiefs terms of three years at a time. In November 2023, the board of Bandhan Bank reappointed him for another three years, but he announced his resignation in April 2024. “Even parliament has a five-year term and bank managing directors have three years.
So how will one plan?" said Ghosh. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allows bank CEOs to remain in charge for 15 years or till they reach 70 years. For CEOs who are promoters or major shareholders of the bank, the regulator allows 12 years at the top.
Ghosh resigned at the end of his term on 9 July 2024 after leading the bank for almost a decade, including three consecutive tenures as MD & CEO. Asked why he stepped down all of a sudden, Ghosh, 65, said there were multiple reasons. He said there were things he could not have pursued as the CEO due to regulatory restrictions.
That apart, the bank was in the throes of migrating its core banking systems to Oracle in 2023 and he wanted to stick around for the exercise to conclude smoothly. “I spent three nights in the office in October to see how things work and to motivate the team," said Ghosh. He said that one evening in late 2023, he found out that the bank had disbursed ₹30 crore of micro-loans
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