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Sports Analogy Explains RBI’s Stand on Banker Retirement Age

Heads of two private lenders -- Aditya Puri and Romesh Sobti -- are set to retire this year due to the RBI’s norms. 

Sports Analogy Explains RBI’s Stand on Banker Retirement Age
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) logo is displayed inside the central bank building in Mumbai, India. (Photographer: Karen Dias/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- The Reserve Bank of India isn’t relenting on the demand to increase the retirement age of private sector bank chiefs and Governor Shaktikanta Das explained it with an analogy from the game of cricket.

“You must retire when people ask ‘why’ and not ‘why not’,” Das said, quoting former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar. “I’m a fan of cricket.”

Das, who was speaking at an event by the Mint newspaper in Mumbai, was asked why is it that there was no age limit for one to be prime minister but the head of a private bank needed to retire at 70.

Heads of two private lenders -- Aditya Puri of HDFC Bank Ltd. and Romesh Sobti of IndusInd Bank Ltd. -- are set to retire this year due to the RBI’s norms that mandate them to step down at the age of 70. Some bankers wanted the age limit to be raised to 75 years to bring RBI rules on par with the new Companies Act, but the RBI didn’t agree, according to a report in the Times of India.

To contact the reporter on this story: Vrishti Beniwal in New Delhi at vbeniwal1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net, Abhay Singh, Karthikeyan Sundaram

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