Is Samit Ghosh to blame for the Ujjivan SFB mess?

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Editor's note: On 1 December 2019, when HDFC Bank’s digital banking head Nitin Chugh took the reins at Ujjivan Small Finance Bank from its founder Samit Ghosh, he was given a three-year tenure. But halfway through, in August 2021, Chugh abruptly resigned as managing director and CEO.  Chugh isn’t the lone top-level exit from the bank; 12 people in senior management positions have left in just the last year. There have also been five resignations at the board level, and over 20 resignations two levels below Chugh’s. The resignations come at a time when the bank is facing mounting stress in its books. As of today, Ujjivan SFB’s gross bad loan ratio is 10x what it was a year ago. Almost two-thirds of the bank’s net worth is stuck in bad loans. In our interactions with former executives at the bank, one thing comes across clearly—constant interference from Ghosh is the reason why many of them left. Additionally, Ghosh is losing institutional investors, who have been dumping the bank’s stock in the markets. The regulator too doesn’t seem too pleased. The bank …