Shikha Sharma, managing director and chief executive, Axis Bank, will hang up her boots in December, bringing the curtains down on a decade-long tenure.
The bank's Board has written to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) saying that Sharma has requested them to shorten her fourth term to six months that will end by December as against an earlier approved three-year term that would have ended by May 2021. Her decision came after the central bank earlier asked the bank's Board to reconsider the three-year extension.
Sharma did not give any reasons for the six month extension. The decision to quit from the position towards the end of the year has now triggered a hunt for her successor.
Sharma has been heading the bank for past eight years and 10 months, a period where she struggled to control the bank's non-performing assets (NPAs). However, she managed to increase the retail book to 46% of the total loan book to de-risk the portfolio, besides consolidating the bank offices in a brand new building called Axis House in Lower Parel from its earlier Cuffe Parade headquarters.
In March, Axis Bank was fined Rs 3 crore for under-reporting its NPAs by Rs 9,478 crore, unearthed by the annual audit conducted by RBI.
The corporate loan portfolio of the bank that turned NPA began to eat into the lender's profitability. Axis Bank witnessed over five-fold jump in NPAs in recent financial years. From Rs 4,110 crore in March 2015, the gross NPAs surged to Rs 21,280 crore by end of March 2017.
Sharma joined the bank in June 2009 with a five-year mandate which was subsequently extended. She succeeded PJ Nayak, who was known as the architect of the bank. Before joining Axis Bank, Sharma was the first managing director and chief executive of ICICI Prudential Life.
