Anup Bagchi assumed charge as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of HDFC Bank on 27 October 2026 for a three year term ending on 26 October 2029. The Reserve Bank of India approved the appointment on 1 October 2026, and Bagchi succeeded Sashidhar Jagdishan whose tenure ended on 26 October 2026. With a target annual package of about ₹36 crore, Bagchi is set to become the highest paid bank CEO in India.
Who Is Anup Bagchi
Anup Bagchi is a career banker with more than three decades of experience in banking, capital markets, insurance and wealth management. Bagchi joined the ICICI Group in 1992 and rose through retail banking, corporate banking, treasury and investment banking to hold its top leadership posts. His most recent role before joining HDFC Bank was Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, a joint venture between ICICI Bank and Prudential Corporation.
Bagchi earned an engineering degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in 1990 and a management degree from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. He served as Managing Director and CEO of ICICI Securities from May 2011, where he built up retail broking, wealth management and corporate finance business. Under his leadership, the firm won the Outlook Money award for India’s Best E-Brokerage House for seven years in a row.
Bagchi served as Executive Director of ICICI Bank from February 2017 to April 2023. In that role he headed wholesale banking, transaction banking, markets and proprietary trading at different times, and also oversaw retail banking, digital channels, data analytics and rural banking groups. He led the development of the icicidirect.com online trading platform and worked on early internet banking services. Bagchi has also served on regulatory panels, including the RBI Expert Committee on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and SEBI committees on financial and regulatory technologies, fair market conduct and risk management.
Appointment and Term as HDFC Bank MD and CEO
HDFC Bank announced on 1 October 2026 that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had approved the appointment of Anup Bagchi as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer under Section 35B of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. Section 35B makes prior RBI approval mandatory for the appointment, reappointment or remuneration of the chairman, managing director, whole time director, manager or CEO of a banking company. The approval covers both the appointment and the pay package.
The term is for three years, from 27 October 2026 to 26 October 2029. Bagchi was first inducted as an Additional Director with effect from 2 October 2026. He assumed full charge as MD and CEO on 27 October 2026 after Sashidhar Jagdishan vacated office at the close of business hours on 26 October 2026. The appointment is subject to shareholder approval under the Companies Act, 2013.
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| HDFC Bank application to RBI for new CEO | September 2026 |
| RBI approval for appointment and remuneration | 1 October 2026 |
| Board approval as Additional Director | 1 October 2026, effective 2 October 2026 |
| Shareholder postal ballot e-voting window | 8 October to 6 November 2026 |
| Jagdishan tenure ends | Close of business, 26 October 2026 |
| Bagchi assumes charge as MD and CEO | 27 October 2026 |
| Term ends | 26 October 2029 |
Bagchi is the first outsider to head HDFC Bank in its more than three decade history. All his predecessors rose from within the bank. His cross industry background in broking, life insurance and wholesale banking is seen as useful at a time when the bank is working to lift retail loan growth, protect margins and rebuild investor confidence after the large HDFC Ltd merger.
Sashidhar Jagdishan Tenure and Succession Context
Sashidhar Jagdishan served as HDFC Bank MD and CEO from 27 October 2020 to 26 October 2026. Jagdishan joined HDFC Bank in 1996 as a manager in the finance department. He became Business Head of Finance in 1999 and Chief Financial Officer in 2008, leading the finance function for 12 years before his elevation to the top post after Aditya Puri, the founding chief who led the bank from 1994 to 2020.
The defining event of the Jagdishan years was the merger of HDFC Ltd with HDFC Bank. The two sides announced the plan on 4 April 2022 and completed it on 1 July 2023. It was the largest amalgamation in Indian banking. The merger added a large housing loan book without a matching deposit base, which pushed the credit deposit ratio up and forced the bank to slow loan growth and raise deposits. Jagdishan chose not to seek reappointment, which opened the succession process that ended with the selection of Bagchi.
HDFC Bank CEO Salary and Highest Paid Banker Ranking
HDFC Bank has proposed a target annual compensation of ₹35.9 crore for Anup Bagchi for 2026-27. The package has a fixed pay of ₹8.97 crore and performance linked variable pay of up to ₹26.92 crore. Variable pay is capped at 300 percent of fixed pay. A separate one time joining grant worth ₹7.35 crore takes the potential first year total to ₹43.24 crore, subject to performance conditions and vesting schedules.
Fixed pay includes basic salary of ₹3.32 crore, housing benefit of ₹1.66 crore, car allowance of about ₹54 lakh, leave fare concession of ₹55.31 lakh, provident fund, gratuity, pension or National Pension System contribution, superannuation and other allowances. Variable pay has a cash part of ₹8.88 crore and stock options worth ₹18.04 crore, covering 7,11,801 options valued under the Black Scholes model. Half the cash is paid upfront and the balance is deferred over three years. The stock options vest over four years. The joining grant has restricted stock units worth ₹3.19 crore and stock options worth ₹4.16 crore, also vesting over four years.
Monthly Pay Breakdown and Comparison With Other Bank Chiefs
The ₹35.9 crore target equals about ₹3 crore per month before performance adjustments. That level places Bagchi above his predecessor and peers among large private banks, based on disclosed figures for 2025-26.
| Bank chief | Annual pay disclosed for 2025-26 |
|---|---|
| Anup Bagchi, HDFC Bank (target for 2026-27) | ₹35.9 crore, plus ₹7.35 crore joining grant |
| Sashidhar Jagdishan, HDFC Bank (outgoing) | ₹28.65 crore, including stock option benefits |
| Ashok Vaswani, Kotak Mahindra Bank | ₹17.24 crore |
| Amitabh Chaudhry, Axis Bank | About ₹10.3 crore |
| Sandeep Bakhshi, ICICI Bank | About ₹10.64 crore |
Bagchi earned an estimated ₹18.9 crore at ICICI Prudential Life Insurance in 2025-26 including stock options, so the HDFC Bank target marks a rise of about 90 percent. The RBI has already cleared the remuneration as part of the Section 35B approval, and the bank has placed the package before shareholders for final consent.
HDFC Bank Ownership Structure and Institutional Profile
HDFC Bank is a private sector bank headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. HDFC Bank was incorporated on 30 August 1994 and began operations as a Scheduled Commercial Bank in January 1995. It was among the first banks cleared under the RBI policy for liberalisation of Indian banking in 1994, with the Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd as its original promoter.
HDFC Bank is India’s largest private sector bank by assets and market capitalisation (as of October 2026). After the amalgamation of HDFC Investments, HDFC Holdings and HDFC Ltd into HDFC Bank with effect from 1 July 2023, the bank states that it has no identifiable promoter. It is a professionally managed organisation overseen by its Board of Directors. The bank offers a full suite of services from banking to insurance and mutual funds through its subsidiaries.
Key Takeaways
- Anup Bagchi assumed charge as HDFC Bank MD and CEO on 27 October 2026 for a term till 26 October 2029.
- The appointment was approved by the RBI on 1 October 2026 under Section 35B of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.
- Bagchi succeeded Sashidhar Jagdishan, who served as CEO from October 2020 to October 2026 and oversaw the HDFC Ltd merger of 1 July 2023.
- Bagchi is the first outsider to head HDFC Bank and was earlier MD and CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance.
- His target pay of ₹35.9 crore per year (about ₹3 crore per month), rising to ₹43.24 crore with joining grant, makes him the highest paid bank CEO in India.
