LVB Independent Director Sanjay Khemani resigns

New Delhi, Mar 19 () Private sector lender Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) on Thursday said its Independent Director Sanjay Kumar Khemani has resigned from the board with immediate effect.

Khemani resigned from the directorship of the bank on March 19, 2020, the bank said in a regulatory filing.

In the resignation letter enclosed with the filing, Khemani -- who joined the bank board on January 23, 2020 -- said there were three board meetings since he assumed charge and the committees of the board were reconstituted, naming him in three of the committees.

Khemani was named in the Customer Service Committee, CSR Committee and IT Strategy Committee.

"Considering the role of these committees, I feel that I do not posses domain expertise required for effectively contributing for furtherance of the objective of these committees and therefore I feel that I would not be able to contribute much to the bank through these committees," Khemani said in his resignation letter to the bank.

In view of the above, " I hereby tender my resignation from the office of the director of the Lakshmi Vilas Bank with immediate effect and request that a notice of my resignation be given to the Registrar of Companies and the board of directors be informed at their next board meeting."

The bank's Non-Executive Non-Independent Director Anuradha Pradeep had resigned in November without giving any reason, while in October, Independent Director Supriya Prakash Sen had put in her papers, citing personal reasons.

Earlier, the Reserve Bank had initiated prompt corrective action (PCA) against the south India-based lender. The central bank had also rejected the merger proposal of Indiabulls Housing Finance and Lakshmi Vilas Bank in October.

Lakshmi Vilas Bank was placed under the RBI's PCA framework due to high level of bad loans, lack of sufficient capital to manage risks and negative return on assets for two consecutive years.

The merger proposal had received all necessary approvals but the nod from the banking regulator was pending since May.

Indiabulls Group has also come under the scanner of probe agencies after the arrest of former Yes Bank co-founder and CEO Rana Kapoor.

Post the Yes Bank debacle, LVB had issued a statement reassuring markets and customers about its financial health.

"The bank would like to take this opportunity to assure our customers that their deposits are safe in our bank. We also request our customers to ignore any market rumours that are based on unfounded news reports," it said on March 12. KPM ABM