Axis Bank recommends three candidates to succeed CEO Shikha Sharma

Private sector lender Axis Bank recommended to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) the names of three candidates to succeed Shikha Sharma, the current executive director (CEO) and chief executive officer (CEO). The fourth term of Sharma expires on December 31, 2018.

"With respect to the existing standards of the Central Bank and the succession planning process of the Bank, the Board of Directors of the Bank recommended on July 9, 2018 the names of three candidates, in order of preference, for the approval of the RBI, "said the bank in a deposit at trading on Tuesday.

The bank said that it would make the required disclosures regarding the same on the receipt of RBI approval

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In April of this year, the bank announced that Sharma has asked the board to reconsider the period of its re-appointment to be revised from June 1, 2018 to December 31, 2018. The Bank had shortly after announced that it had appointed Egon Zehnder, a global leadership consulting firm, to find Sharma's successor.

Last December, the bank's board of directors decided to reappoint Sharma as chief executive officer and CEO for a period of three years. as of June 1, 2018. Its original mandate would have expired in June 2021. However, the new appointment had not yet been approved by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Sharma resigned amidst RBI raising questions about her new appointment despite the rise in non-performing badets (NPAs) or bad debts and governance issues like Whatsapp's leak investigations. Sharma had offered to stay until December 2018 to ensure a smooth transition and support new leadership.

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Sidharth Rath, Head of Business Banking and Transactions, and V Srinivasan reportedly resigned in March. The bank had asked another senior manager, while chief information officer Amit Sethi to resign at Feburary,

Another private sector lender ICICI Bank is also struggling with the reshuffling of management with Chanda Koccha, his CEO. investigating allegations of conflict of interest against it. The bank also appointed Sandeep Bakhshi, a veteran of the ICICI group, as interim chief operating officer.