Will Vishwavir Ahuja get to stay at RBL Bank?
The bank chief is up for reappointment in six months, at a time when there’s an alarming level of stress on RBL’s books.
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Editor's note: Vishwavir Ahuja doesn’t show it, but the managing director of RBL Bank is not amused. He’s up for reappointment in six months, pending approval from the Reserve Bank of India—and no one is sure how the central bank will respond. Last year, the RBI extended Ahuja’s tenure by just a year, instead of three as requested; if that decision was any indication, the RBL chief is set for a few nail-biting months ahead. It didn’t help that the bank’s September quarter results, announced on 28 October, showed a continued increase in loans gone sour. Gross non-performing assets have surged from 1.84% to 5.4% of total advances in a span of just three quarters. To top it off, some senior executives have taken the exit door among murmurs of conflicts with Ahuja’s working style. “There seems to be huge stress in the books of RBL Bank. If the mess gets real, it can be a scary situation for the banking sector yet again,” says a worried rival bank chief, who asked not to be named. Last time it was in trouble, …
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