YES Bank's independent director R Chandrashekhar resigns; promoters seek board overhaul

New Delhi: In a third resignation from the YES Bank board, independent director Rentala Chandrashekhar Monday put in his papers, according to a regulatory filing. Besides, the private sector lender is expected to overhaul its board after receiving a nod from its promoters, sources said. “We would like to inform that Rentala Chandrashekhar, Non-Executive, Independent Director has tendered his resignation from the board of directors of YES Bank on 19 November 2018 with immediate effect,” the bank said in the filing. The bank cited personal reasons for Chandrashekhar’s resignation. “The Nomination & Remuneration Committee of the bank will look for a suitable replacement in the field of Information Technology & Cyber Security in terms of applicable provisions of Sebi regulations, Companies Act and RBI Act,” it said further. [caption id=“attachment_4179905” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] YES Bank’s Nomination & Remuneration Committee is reviewing the performance of the board members, according to the sources. Both the promoters groups of the bank, led by its MD and CEO Rana Kapoor and Madhu Kapur, are in favour of a clean-up and overhaul of the board, they added. “The new board members will be acceptable to both the promoters group. Both promoters are in favour of overhauling the Yes Bank board to weed out under-performing members and address past governance issues,” the sources said. Earlier last week, former SBI chairman O P Bhatt resigned from the panel set up by the bank to find a successor for Rana Kapoor. Bhatt is under CBI’s scanner in connection with loans given to the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines, promoted by fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya. Besides, he is also on the global board of Standard Chartered Bank which made a case of conflict of interest. On 14 November, the bank’s non-executive chairman Ashok Chawla had resigned as his name figured in a CBI charge sheet filed in the Aircel-Maxis case. Another independent director Vasant Gujarathi too had tendered his resignation on the same day over audit committee performance issues. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked the private sector lender to find a replacement for its founder MD and CEO by 31 January. Last month, YES Bank had said the search panel has finalised the potential candidate profile. The RBI, it is learnt, has found corporate governance issues and under-reporting of non-performing assets, which has led to a series of negative developments in the private sector lender’s functioning in the recent past. The bank currently has seven board members – Rana Kapoor, Lt General Mukesh Sabharwal, Brahm Dutt, Subhash Kalia, Ajai Kumar, Pratima Sheorey and Rentala Chandrashekhar, as per the bank’s website.