The board of directors of Ujjivan Small Finance Bank on Wednesday authorized the appointment of Carol Furtado as the officer on particular duty (OSD). Furtado, who will be handling day-to-day operations from August 26, will be serving as the OSD till outgoing MD & CEO Nitin Chugh is in workplace.
Furtado will take charge as the interim CEO, topic to RBI approval, immediately after September 30. She was the CEO of Ujjivan Financial Services, the promoter of Ujjivan SFB. Talking to FE on August 20, Ujjivan founder Samit Ghosh had stated Furtado is the leading candidate to come to be the interim CEO of the bank.
In a stock exchange filing on Wednesday, the bank stated its board “unanimously” authorized the appointment of Furtado as the OSD. The board of Ujjivan SFB, in parallel, will evaluate “suitable candidates” for the MD and CEO position, and submit two names to the RBI for approval, the filing stated.
Ghosh, the prevalent director on Ujjivan SFB and Ujjivan Financial Services, stated, “Carol has been our go to person during any major crisis. I am sure she will lead us out of this Covid crisis with flying colours. We do not foresee any near-term major issues in the portfolio quality of the bank. With the provision coverage ratio of 75%, the highest in the industry, we are very well positioned.”
Ghosh stated the bank is undertaking an “independent” portfolio high-quality and method audit. “We look towards streamlining the provisioning policy. We are confident of strengthening the organisation and emerge as a stronger Ujjivan.”