Exclusive | IDFC First Bank's Rajeev Uberoi may take up key post at Yes Bank

Yes Bank's new CEO Ravneet Gill is a man on a mission. Other than cleaning up the balance-sheet of the beleaguered  private sector lender, Gill wants to build his A-team and ensure that the RBI does not find any governance and compliance lapses under his watch.

Moneycontrol has learnt exclusively from multiple sources that Gill has decided to rope in banking veteran and IDFC First Bank's General Counsel & Group Head (Legal & Compliance ) Dr Rajeev Uberoi to spearhead the compliance and governance related functions at Yes Bank.

"Uberoi may join Yes Bank shortly, post the completion of exit formalities at IDFC First Bank. Compliance and governance assume great significance now for Yes Bank, in the aftermath of RBI's adverse observations on the bank's practices under the previous management," a source said.

"Uberoi has retired from IDFC First Bank and was on an extension. He is likely to be headed to Yes Bank and his last working day at IDFC First Bank is May 31, 2019," added another source.

Both IDFC First Bank & Yes Bank declined to comment. Uberoi was also not available for an immediate comment.

Uberoi joined IDFC as General Counsel and Group Head-Legal and Compliance in 2009 and was instrumental in setting up the governance structure of the firm and worked on the demerger of IDFC Limited & IDFC Bank Limited in 2015. He has worked in the banking & finance space for more than three decades and has worked as an in-house counsel in multi-functional & multi -jurisdictional organisations.

Prior to joining IDFC Limited, Uberoi worked with Standard Chartered Bank, where he was Regional Head - Operational Risk & Assurance, South Asia.

In his previous stints, he has worked with several domestic and multinational banks such as Union Bank of India, State Bank of India, Reserve Bank of India as Asst. General Manager, Dept. of Banking Supervision and Citibank as Vice President & Regulatory Head; ANZ Grindlays Bank as Head - Risk Management & Compliance - India.

RBI had cut short former Yes Bank MD & CEO Rana Kapoor's tenure until 31st January 2019 after reportedly detecting serious corporate governance and compliance issues in the functioning of the private sector lender. The bank had come under the regulator's lens after it reported substantial divergences in classification of NPAs as compared to the assessment by RBI.

Gill, previously the CEO of Deutsche Bank's India operations, took over as the MD & CEO of Yes Bank on March 1, 2019.  Recently, the RBI had appointed former deputy governor R Gandhi as an additional director on the board of Yes Bank for two years.