Aditya Puri, the Managing Director of HDFC Bank, made some remarks today in response to twitter comments and messages that the bank has been receiving. He was reacting to questions regarding the exits of senior executives, and RBI action on a HDFC Bank loan.
"We have been getting messages that suggest that there is some internal turmoil at the bank due to senior management transitions," Puri said. He insisted, however, that this was not the case. "Our CTO Munish Mittal had a year back, told us he would like to go into advanced studies at Oxford. He was set milestones to achieve before he moved on. He did that and now he is in London."
On the exit of Abhay Aima, Puri said, "The other key employee was Abhay Aima who was one of the founding people in the bank, and played a stellar role in growing the company. He wanted to pursue alternate interests, and I let him know that as soon as he trained his successor, he could move on. You only live once, after all."
Puri also addressed the RBI directive to HDFC Bank, to refund money debited from the account of Altico Capital in September 2019. Altico had been on the brink of default when HDFC Bank debited Rs. 210 crore that was lying in the company's accounts. "Regarding the loan where we were asked by RBI to refund some money. We had appropriated the loan amount based on legal advice, but as the regulator has advised us, we have thought fit to return the money. We have exhibited exemplary standards across 25 years, and I don't think that will change," Puri said.
The head of the auto loan business at HDFC Bank had retired in March, amid a swirl of whistleblower complaints. On this, Puri said, "We received some whistleblower complaints and we have carried out an internal investigation and we found that there was no conflict of interest nor any bearing on our loan portfolio. We did unearth some inappropriate employee behavior in violation of company rules, and we have taken appropriate disciplinary action. This was an act of personal misconduct."