Bengaluru, India – 28 February, 2020: IndusInd Bank, a privately held lender declares the appointment of the new CEO, Sumant Kathpalia, succeeding Romesh Sobti. Sumant Kathpalia and Romesh Sobti were colleagues for a long time. Sumant takes charge at a time where stocks are very low and investors worry about its bad loans.

“The bank has received a communication from the RBI today, approving the appointment of Mr. Sumant Kathpalia, who currently heads the bank's consumer banking business, as its Managing Director & CEO for 3 years, with effect from March 24, 2020, post the retirement of Mr. Romesh Sobti, the current MD & CEO,” the bank said in a communication.

Currently Sumant Kathpalia is the head of consumer loans in a promoted lender, Hinduja and will take over the new position from March. Sumant Kathpalia is 55 years old and has worked with the

bank since 2008. He was responsible with building consumer loans portfolio from the beginning. Sumant was renowned for diversifying the bank’s book with loans against property and personal loans and credit cards. He is a chartered accountant and in his previous venture, he has functioned with Citibank and Bank of America. He has varied knowledge and experience in consumer banking, credit cards, bank assurance, project management consumer finance and wealth management.

“We have been occupied with the succession planning for years, there have been no assumptions on extensions,” Sobti had told ET in an interview in November. “You give the potential candidate a wider role and the organisation starts sensing that. The parallel run would be for 3-4 months not for 12-18 months."

Romesh Sobti is a banker and has an experience of 37 years in public, foreign and private banking sectors. During 2007-2008 he was the CEO and Managing Director of IndusInd Bank. Before his position as the CEO, he was the vice president at ABN AMRO Bank N.V as the country executive, India and head, UAE and sub continent. In the year 1990, he joined ABN AMRO Bank N.V. and was uplifted from the position of Chief Manager to Country Executive for a period of 18 years. He was linked with State Bank of India and Standard Chartered Bank in the past. He completed his Honours in Engineering and has also completed a Diploma in Corporate Laws and Secretarial Practice.

IndusInd Bank is established in the year 1994 and is a new generation bank headquartered in Pune. The bank provides electronic banking products and transactional services to the customers. The bank is considered as the first bank among the new generation banks. The bank functioned with a capital of 1 billion among 600 million was raised by Indian residents and 400 million was raised by non resident Indians. IndusInd Bank has specifically focused in retail banking services and continuously upgrades its support systems. It is in the progress to expand its relations across the country.