The Axis Bank board on Monday accepted Chief Executive Officer Shikha Sharma’s request to reduce her new term from three years to seven months, PTI reported.
The Reserve Bank of India had asked the bank to reconsider its decision to reappoint Sharma for a fourth term, amid concerns about rising bad loans at the bank, Mint reported last week.
Sharma’s fourth term at the helm of India’s third largest private sector lender will run from June 1 to December 31, the bank said in a regulatory filing. Had she served the complete term, she would have stepped down in May 2021. Now, the central bank has to approve the board’s decision.
The bank performed well under her leadership, but the situation became grim after the RBI announced its asset quality review in December 2015, The Economic Times reported. The bank’s gross bad loans were Rs 20,466 crore at the end of December 2016, up from Rs 5,724 crore at the end of December 2015. Net profit fell to Rs 579 crore in the December 2016 quarter from Rs 2,175 crore in the corresponding period the year before.
“When you are leading a large organisation and things go well, you get bouquets, and if things don’t go well, you get the brickbats,” Sharma told The Economic Times in October 2017. “As an institution, we are trying to be as transparent as we can. Some things went well, some things didn’t go well, and we kept responding on the fly. Our belief is that we were certainly not an outlier. This too shall pass.”
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!