HDFC Bank Faces Second SEBI Warning In A Week Over Regulatory Non-Compliance

India’s largest private sector bank, HDFC Bank, has been slapped with a second administrative warning by the market regulator SEBI for alleged non-compliance with certain provisions of the regulator.

A new warning was issued by SEBI to HDFC Bank on Monday for a three-day delay in disclosing the resignation of senior employee Arvind Kapil and failing to explain the delay.

Last week, the market regulator had issued an administrative warning to HDFC Bank for non-compliance with multiple regulations, including provisions governing merchant bankers, capital issuance, and insider trading.

According to SEBI regulations on Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements (LODR), listed entities must inform the exchanges about any change within the company within 12 hours. However, HDFC Bank delayed this disclosure by three days.

"The above violation has been viewed seriously. You are therefore warned to be careful in the future and advised to exercise due caution to avoid the recurrence of such instances, failing which appropriate enforcement action may be initiated," states the SEBI administrative warning letter to HDFC Bank.

The market watchdog deemed the violations serious and warned the bank to avoid recurrence and take corrective measures.

SEBI further directed the bank to place its response before the Board and disclose it to the exchanges.

The bank notified the exchanges about Arvind Kapil's resignation on April 30, 2024, after a three-day delay and appointed Sumant Rampal as the Group Head of Mortgage Business from March 28, 2024, without the required regulatory filings.