Akhil Handa Steps Down As Head Of Digital Lending At Bank Of Baroda

Akhil Handa has resigned as the head of the digital lending business at Bank of Baroda.

The public sector lender said that K Sheetal Venkateshmurthy, the current head of digital channels and operations, would now take over this role, according to an exchange filing on Tuesday.

The exit has been due to the cessation of his employment. He joined the bank in 2015.

In a LinkedIn post too, Handa announced about the end of his tenure at Bank of Baroda.

"As I embark on a new journey, today 31.10.23 marks the end of my journey at Bank of Baroda, and I wanted to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude to my incredible colleagues for the incredible support and camaraderie during my time here," he said in the post.

He also thanked previous leaders at the bank in the post.

"I'm especially grateful to our previous Managing Director and Chief Executive Officers, Sanjiv Chadha and PS Jayakumar, and all the Executive Directors who have mentored me and for the opportunities they provided me during my tenure. Their leadership and vision have been inspiring," he wrote in the post.

The decision to move was made a long time ago but had to wait until the completion of the transition period to make this announcement, he said.

Notably, Handa was also instrumental in building the BoB World app.

On Oct. 10, the Reserve Bank of India barred the lender from onboarding new customers onto the BoB World app, until further notice.

This was mainly due to allegations that some of the bank employees were fraudulently linking mobile numbers with accounts of customers to boost the active user base of the app.

BQ Prime previously reported that the bank had suspended at least nine BoB officers of the executive cadre in the case, based on its investigation. Majority of the action was centred around branches in Gujarat.