The Dubai files

The GPS files were about cars. The Dubai files were about life savings: NRI depositors moved offshore, sold complex bank bonds as if they were fixed deposits, and left holding the losses when Credit Suisse fell. The bank fired three senior executives after the Gulf regulator stepped in.

The product

Additional Tier-1 bonds are the most dangerous paper a bank issues: perpetual, loss-absorbing, first in line to be written down in a crisis. When Credit Suisse was rescued by UBS, its AT1 bonds were written off entirely, causing heavy losses worldwide. (Switzerland's Federal Administrative Court later ruled the write-off unlawful; FINMA and UBS have appealed, as Business Today noted.)

The allegations

From January 2025, relationship managers in HDFC Bank's Dubai and Bahrain branches allegedly pitched Credit Suisse AT1 bonds to NRI clients as fixed-maturity products with assured returns, persuading many to shift their FCNR deposits from India to Bahrain to invest. Some investors said they were asked to sign blank documents, and that the perpetual nature and loss-absorption risks were not fully explained, per Business Today and Times Now.

The Dubai Financial Services Authority barred the bank from onboarding new clients at its DIFC branch while the probe ran. The bank's internal investigation concluded on 18 March 2026, and three employees were terminated: Sampath Kumar, group head of branch banking; Harsh Gupta, Executive Vice President for Middle East, Africa and NRI onshore business; and Payal Mandhyan, Senior Vice President, as CNBC-TV18 first reported.

The timing could hardly have been worse: the terminations landed three days after chairman Chakraborty's resignation, and the stock fell another 2.4% on the news, per Times Now. Two scandals, one week, opposite ends of the organisation - a chairman at the top, sales staff abroad at the edge, and the same underlying question: what does the machine do to the people it touches?