Mumbai, Oct. 3 -- ICICI Bank veteran Anup Bagchi's appointment as the managing director and chief executive officer of HDFC Bank is the latest instance of the regulator approving external candidates to helm private sector banks. Announced late on 1 October, Bagchi's appointment comes after he emerged as the frontrunner for the position over internal candidate and current deputy managing director Kaizad Bharucha. "RBI might want to bring in more outsiders that are not part of the system as they can bring in more independence with them. Also, age is in Bagchi's favour, and the regulator would want continuity and stability in India's largest private sector bank," said Siddharth Goel, director, Fitch Ratings. The decision to pick Bagchi, 56, follows other such recent approvals, including Prashant Kumar at Yes Bank in March 2020 and Vinay Tonse in April 2026, both former State Bank of India officials. Last year, RBI approved the appointment of Axis Bank's Rajiv Anand as the head of IndusInd Bank, following which he took charge in August 2025. In September 2024, Kotak Bank's KVS Manian took over as the head of Federal Bank, whereas Mahesh Muralidhar Pai, previously chief general manager at Canara Bank, took over as MD of South Indian Bank from 1 October. More recently, Kotak Bank on Thursday said that RBI has approved the appointment of Anup Kumar Saha as MD and CEO. While Saha heads the retail bank, government business, data analytics and marketing functions at Kotak Bank, he is largely being viewed as an external candidate given that he joined the bank only nine months ago in January 2026, after eight-year and 14-year stints at Bajaj Finance and ICICI Bank, respectively....