2 min readMumbaiApr 5, 2026 05:09 AM IST
HDFC Bank is learnt to have taken disciplinary action against 15 executives for their role in the alleged mis-selling of Credit Suisse Additional Tier-1 bonds.
Investors have alleged that the AT-1 bonds which are complex, high-risk financial instruments, the Credit Suisse AT-1 bonds, were probably held by HDFC Bank in its books, and sold off to them when the bank realised in late 2020 that Credit Suisse was not doing well.
These bonds were written off in line with regulatory order when Credit Suisse was acquired by Swiss peer UBS in 2023, leading to an uproar among investors.
The bank had on March 20 acted against three officials — Sampath Kumar, group head of branch banking, Harsh Gupta, executive vice president, Middle East, Africa, and NRI onshore business, and Payal Mandhyan, senior vice president — for their alleged involvement in the mis-selling of the bonds. It has now come to light that action has been taken against 12 more executives, sources said.
The bank did not respond to mails seeking its comments on the allegations raised by investors and the action taken against a dozen more executives now.
“We’re in our silent period,” a bank official said. In an earlier March 20 statement, the bank had said it had “identified certain gaps in client‑onboarding requirements at its DIFC branch in the UAE and has completed a detailed and objective review of the matter.” In a letter to the Central Bank of Bahrain in February 2024 and again in July 2025, a bunch of NRI investors including Varun Mahajan, said, “HDFC Bank was possibly holding Credit Suisse bonds on its own books, perhaps as part of the Global Strategic Agreement it had with Credit Suisse (signed in 2011, as we understand). By late 2020, HDFC Bank realised that Credit Suisse wasn’t doing too well. So what did they do? They targeted innocent NRI clients, made them open offshore accounts with HDFC Bank Bahrain (as AT-1 bonds cannot be sold through Indian accounts), and misclassified these clients as accredited investors eligible to be sold AT-1 bonds.”
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
.