The ₹45 crore question

Days before the chairman quit, money moved from the bank to a Maharashtra road agency - interest on deposits, allegedly dressed up as sponsorship of a road-safety campaign. The bank's board later fined its own CEO over "shortcomings". Then three American law firms opened investigations.

An Indian Express investigation, based on internal records, found that HDFC Bank made payments to the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation just days before Atanu Chakraborty's 18 March 2026 resignation. The payments - about ₹45 crore - were allegedly "differential interest": interest above the specified rate on the agency's deposits, used to attract large deposits. Instead of being credited to MSRDC as interest income, the funds were allegedly routed through the bank's marketing department and booked as contributions to a road-safety awareness campaign via four local vendors, as ET Markets reported.

The ₹1 lakh fines

In July 2026, the bank's board found shortcomings in the deposit arrangements with MSRDC and fined Jagdishan and other executives ₹1 lakh each, while stating their actions were not mala fide, as Mint reported. A token sum - but a board formally fining its own sitting CEO is not a token event.

The American angle

Because the bank's ADRs trade on the NYSE, its disclosures are a US securities matter. In July 2026, three US law firms - Glancy Prongay Wolke & Rotter in Los Angeles, the Law Offices of Howard G. Smith in Pennsylvania, and the Law Offices of Frank R. Cruz - announced investigations into whether the bank violated federal securities laws by allegedly disguising the ₹45 crore as marketing spend, inviting shareholders who suffered losses to come forward. Such announcements are early-stage lead-plaintiff searches, not filed class actions - but the stock fell over 1% that day and about 10% over five sessions, per ET Markets.

It was not the bank's first visit from American plaintiff lawyers: the GPS scandal had drawn class actions from Rosen Law Firm and Schall Law Firm back in 2020-21, as Mint noted.