Axis veteran Anand to steer IndusInd through trust crisis

Rajiv Anand's experience across debt, equity, retail, corporate banking should work well for IndusInd Bank

- Shayan Ghosh

"Amba socho (think long-term). This is what senior banker Rajiv Anand offered as his advice to youngsters during a podcast. "Careers, lives are a marathon, not a hundred-metre dash. Therefore, you will get the full benefits of your career, your life in the long term."

Anand, deputy managing director at Axis Bank Ltd, was speaking with Sameer Shetty, group executive, digital banking and transformation, Axis Bank, in a podcast posted on YouTube on 1 August. Three days later, Anand was named as the next managing director and chief executive officer of IndusInd Bank, a role that had two more contenders.

In a late-evening exchange filing on Monday, the private sector lender that's been in the news since March for all the wrong reasons, said Anand's three-year term will begin on 25 August.

For IndusInd Bank, Anand's appointment fills a position lying vacant since end-April when erstwhile CEO Sumant Kathpalia quit taking "moral responsibility".