Nagpur: The roots of the ongoing crisis at HDFC Bank appear to trace back to Nagpur, where a formal complaint lodged with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in July 2025 set off a chain reaction. The complaint alleged mis-selling of Credit Suisse’s Additional Tier-1 (AT-1) bonds to investors, sparking internal investigations and regulatory scrutiny.
The issue gained further traction when HDFC Bank’s part-time chairman, Atanu Chakraborty, stepped down citing “values and ethics,” intensifying speculation about internal governance failures. The fallout has already impacted market sentiment and the broader banking sector.
According to newspaper reports, the Nagpur EOW complaint was filed by Narendra Singhru, a senior advisor associated with the Asian Development Bank and a high-net-worth individual (HNI). The FIR names HDFC Bank CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan along with three other senior officials. Investors from Nagpur, Chandigarh, and Gurugram have collectively claimed losses estimated between ₹20–30 crore.
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Investigations allege that bank officials bypassed regulatory norms by misclassifying investors as “professional investors” on paper—allowing the sale of complex AT-1 bonds, which are otherwise restricted for retail investors in India. There are also serious accusations that fixed deposits were prematurely broken without customer consent and diverted into these high-risk instruments, allegedly lured by promised returns of 10–13%.
The controversy has also drawn international attention. The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) had earlier restricted the bank from onboarding new customers due to lapses in its sales processes. Meanwhile, HDFC Bank has terminated three senior officials, a move widely seen as a direct outcome of mounting investigative pressure linked to the Nagpur case.
With Nagpur’s EOW actively pursuing the matter, the city has unexpectedly become central to a financial controversy with global implications-raising a critical question: was Nagpur merely the starting point, or the decisive trigger behind the unfolding crisis at one of India’s largest private banks?
