CSB Bank managing director and CEO C VR Rajendran has decided to take early retirement on health grounds.

Rajendran, whose current three-year term was to end on December 8, 2022, will continue till March 2022. He has been holding the position of managing director and CEO since December 9, 2016.

In a statement, the private lender said Rajendran decided to take early retirement on health grounds under the advice of his physicians.

The board of CSB Bank has decided to constitute a search committee to identify and evaluate candidates, both internal or external, for the position of MD and CEO. It will engage an independent executive search firm in this regard.

Rajendran was the driving force in turning around CSB Bank in the first quarter of FY2020, after the Kerala-based bank was incurring losses for many consecutive quarters.

Rajendran was also instrumental in getting Prem Vatsa to invest in the bank. Vatsa-controlled Fairfax India Holdings Corporation’s subsidiary, FIH Mauritius Investments Ltd, infused Rs 1,208 crore of primary capital in CSB Bank. The entity currently holds around 49.72% in CSB Bank.

During Rajendran’s tenure, the bank successfully conducted an initial public offering (IPO), which was oversubscribed 87 times.

Rajendran has ensured the effective implementation of a slew of sustainable growth strategies, which included healthy prudential parameters such as risk assessment, business expansion with a firm eye on bottom line, reducing the non-performing assets (NPAs), moving to verticalised business model, and turning the underperforming bank to a new age agile profit-making entity, CSB Bank said.

Rajendran was earlier the chief of Andhra Bank and executive director at Bank of Maharashtra.