The Reserve Bank of India has officially approved HDFC Bank's appointment of Rajiv Kumar as part-time chairman for three years. According to the bank's regulatory filing dated July 15, 2026, the RBI's communication confirmed the approval under Section 10B(1A)(i) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, with effect from July 15, 2026. This development comes after the bank's application to the RBI and an earlier intimation made on June 29, 2026. The bank's total market capitalisation stands at ₹12.55 lakh crore as of July 15, 2026, according to NSE data.
Rajiv Kumar, a 66-year-old retired 1984-batch IAS officer who concluded his civil service career as India's Finance Secretary in February 2020, will succeed interim chairman Keki Mistry. As reported by The Economic Times, Kumar is a former Chief Election Commissioner of India who served from May 2022 to February 2025, making him the second IAS officer to hold this position after his junior and former chairman Chakraborty—a retired 1985 batch IAS officer—stepped down in March 2026, citing concerns over certain happenings and practices within the bank. HDFC Bank has expressed its gratitude to Mistry for his valuable guidance during his interim tenure, noting that he continues as a non-executive, non-independent director on the board.
Kumar is expected to chair his first board meeting on July 18, when the bank's board will consider its financial results for the first quarter of FY27. According to Mint, one of Kumar's immediate priorities as chairman will be to lead the board's deliberations on the reappointment of Managing Director and CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan. The board had approved Kumar's appointment as part-time chairman for three years last month, subject to RBI approval, and also approved his appointment as an additional independent director for four years, subject to shareholders' approval. Kumar served as secretary of the department of financial services from 2017 to 2020, where he implemented significant reforms including the ₹3 lakh crore recapitalization of public sector banks and consolidation of 27 PSU banks into 12 stronger entities.
During his tenure as DFS secretary, Kumar implemented comprehensive reforms including cracking down on shell companies and black money in the financial services system. As reported by The Economic Times, within a fortnight of Kumar joining Department of Financial Services, accounts of about 3.38 lakh shell companies were frozen, hitting at the architecture of black money itself. Kumar led a comprehensive clean-up of bank balance sheets by mandating transparent recognition and provisioning of NPAs and enforcing accountability among borrowers under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code framework. His approach addressed the long-standing twin balance sheet problem by restoring credit discipline and rebooting the creditor-debtor relationship through the '4R strategy' of Recognition, Resolution, Recapitalisation, and Reforms. Kumar also led measures to strengthen banking governance and risk management, including tighter fraud monitoring, technology-driven risk assessment, enhanced oversight of large loans and raising deposit insurance coverage from ₹1 lakh to ₹5 lakh. His tenure saw decisive action against illicit financial practices, strengthening regulatory oversight of cooperative banks, and enforcing accountability in high-profile default cases, with passport details becoming mandatory for loans of ₹50 crore and above.
Following the RBI approval announcement, HDFC Bank shares rose 0.75% to close at ₹815.45 on the NSE on Wednesday, though the development was announced after market hours. The bank reported strong Q4 FY26 results with standalone net profit jumping 9.11% to ₹19,221.05 crore compared to ₹17,616.14 crore in Q4 FY25. Total income remained relatively stable, rising marginally to ₹89,808.90 crore from ₹89,487.99 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. As of March 31, 2026, the bank operates through 9,689 branches and 21,172 ATMs across 4,175 cities/towns. The stock has gained more than 8% over the month but lost 18% on a year-to-date basis, with a 52-week high of ₹1,020.50 reached on October 23, 2025, and a year's low of ₹726.65 touched on April 2, 2026.
