HDFC Bank appoints ICICI Prudential Life CEO Anup Bagchi as MD & CEO
HDFC Bank has named Anup Bagchi as its next MD & CEO, bringing the experienced financial services executive to lead the bank. Bagchi currently heads ICICI Prudential Life.
HDFC Bank has appointed Anup Bagchi, currently the CEO of ICICI Prudential Life, as its new MD & CEO. The appointment marks a key leadership change at the private sector lender.
HDFC Bank on Thursday appointed Anup Bagchi as its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer for a three-year term, bringing an ICICI Group veteran to the helm of the country’s largest private-sector lender.
The appointment follows approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), HDFC Bank said in a stock exchange filing on October 1. Bagchi will take charge as MD & CEO from October 27, 2026, succeeding Sashidhar Jagdishan, whose term ends on October 26.
The bank’s board has also approved Bagchi’s appointment as an Additional Director with effect from October 2, subject to shareholder approval under the Companies Act, 2013.
HDFC Bank: How the appointment was cleared
In its disclosure to BSE Limited and the National Stock Exchange of India, HDFC Bank said the RBI communicated its approval on October 1 following an application made by the bank. The central bank approved both Bagchi’s appointment and the remuneration payable to him under Section 35B of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. The filing does not state the remuneration.
The bank’s Board of Directors met on the same day. On the recommendation of its Governance, Nomination and Remuneration Committee, the board approved two decisions: Bagchi’s appointment as Additional Director from October 2, 2026, until shareholders approve it, and his appointment as MD & CEO for three years from October 27, 2026, on the terms approved by the RBI. The second is also subject to shareholder approval.
The filing builds on an earlier intimation the bank made to the exchanges on September 12, 2026. That earlier notice has not been reproduced in the latest disclosure, which refers to it only as the starting point for the RBI process.
The bank also declared that Bagchi is not related to any other director or key managerial personnel of the bank. It said he is not debarred from holding the office of Additional Director or Director by any SEBI order or any other authority. Under the terms disclosed in the filing, he will not be liable to retire by rotation.
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HDFC Bank: Handover on October 27
The filing sets out a clear timeline. Jagdishan will complete his tenure as MD & CEO at the close of business hours on October 26, 2026. Bagchi’s term as MD & CEO runs from October 27, 2026, to October 26, 2029.
Bagchi will join the board earlier, as an Additional Director from October 2, 2026, giving him access to the board for about three and a half weeks before he assumes the chief executive’s role. The filing does not say what responsibilities he will carry during that period.
The disclosure describes the change as a consequence of Jagdishan’s retirement and the receipt of RBI approval. It was made under Regulation 30 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, and signed by Ajay Agarwal, Company Secretary and Group Head of Secretarial & Group Oversight. Copies were sent to the New York Stock Exchange and the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited. HDFC Bank’s scrip code is 500180 on BSE and HDFCBANK on NSE.
HDFC Bank: Three decades in the ICICI Group
Bagchi currently serves as Managing Director and CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, a position he has held since June 2023. He has more than three decades of experience across banking, capital markets, wealth management and insurance.
According to HDFC Bank’s filing, he has been associated with the ICICI Group since 1992 and has held leadership roles spanning treasury, retail banking, wholesale banking, investment banking and digital financial services.
Before joining ICICI Prudential Life, Bagchi was an Executive Director at ICICI Bank from 2017 to 2023, where he oversaw retail, business and rural banking and later wholesale banking. The filing says that under his leadership ICICI Bank became the first private-sector bank in India to surpass a retail mortgage portfolio of ₹2 trillion, and that it navigated the demonetisation period with limited business disruption.
He also served as CEO and Managing Director of ICICI Securities. Until May 2023 he was Chairman of ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company, and he has been a director of ICICI Prudential Pension Funds Management Company and ICICI Home Finance.
Bagchi holds a management degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, and an engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.
HDFC Bank: Numbers from his tenure at ICICI Prudential Life
During his tenure at ICICI Prudential Life, the insurer crossed ₹10,000 crore in Annualised Premium Equivalent (APE) for the first time in FY2025. APE grew 15% year-on-year to ₹10,407 crore, while profit after tax rose nearly 40% to ₹1,189 crore.
The profile attached to the filing also credits the business with strong growth in protection products and new business generation, and describes his focus as sustainable and profitable expansion. These figures and characterisations come from HDFC Bank’s own disclosure rather than from ICICI Prudential Life.
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance is publicly listed, and the filing describes it as one of India’s largest private life insurers. The disclosure does not say who will succeed Bagchi at the insurer or when he will step down from that role.
His three-year term at HDFC Bank will run from October 27, 2026, to October 26, 2029, subject to shareholder approval.
