Utkarsh Small Finance Bank is preparing to appoint Manmohan Shetty as its Chief Financial Officer, bringing an experienced banking and financial services professional into its senior management team at a time when the lender is working through asset-quality pressures and a period of management transition.
The proposed appointment was reported on September 8, 2026, by ETBFSI, citing people familiar with the development and a spokesperson for Utkarsh Small Finance Bank. The appointment has not yet received final board approval. The bank’s board is scheduled to meet on September 19, when approval of the CFO appointment is expected to be taken up.
As of September 10, Shetty should therefore be described as the proposed CFO rather than as having formally assumed the position.
Who Is Manmohan Shetty?
Shetty is a Chartered Accountant with more than 20 years of experience in banking and financial services.
His work has covered financial control, financial reporting, regulatory reporting, financial planning and analysis, treasury management, governance, taxation, audit, management information systems and corporate secretarial functions. His professional profile also lists experience in board-facing finance roles and financial process management.
Before the proposed move to Utkarsh Small Finance Bank, Shetty served as CFO of IREP Credit Capital, which is now known as Viksit Capital.
According to the report, he was associated with IREP Credit Capital from February 2016 until March 2026. He spent close to a decade with the lender and handled its finance function during a period when the company was expanding its lending operations.
CARE Ratings documents from 2024 also listed Manmohan Shetty among IREP Credit Capital's senior management, then identifying him as Senior Vice President for Finance.
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Shetty previously worked with Barclays
Before joining IREP Credit Capital, Shetty spent nearly nine years with Barclays.
During his tenure there, he served as Vice President for Finance and as CFO of Barclays Investments & Loans India, according to ETBFSI.
That experience gives him exposure to both a global banking institution and an Indian lending business, two different operating environments that involve regulatory reporting, financial controls, treasury and governance requirements.
If approved by the Utkarsh Small Finance Bank board, Shetty will move into a role that involves oversight of the lender's financial reporting, planning, capital management and regulatory finance functions.
Why is Utkarsh Small Finance Bank appointing a new CFO?
The proposed appointment follows an internal leadership change at the bank.
Sarju Kumar Pravin Simaria, who had been serving as CFO, relinquished his CFO responsibilities effective June 20, 2026, after being elevated to the position of Whole-time Director. Simaria took charge as Whole-time Director from June 22 after receiving the required Reserve Bank of India approval.
Simaria had joined Utkarsh Small Finance Bank in September 2022 and was appointed CFO by the bank's board in October that year.
His move to a board-level executive position created the need for a new head of finance.
The proposed appointment of Shetty would fill that position while retaining Simaria within the bank's senior leadership structure.
The bank has also seen other management changes over the past year. Pramod Kumar Dubey, who had served as Executive Director from September 2024, resigned with effect from December 31, 2025.
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Utkarsh Small Finance Bank Q1 FY27 Financial Position
The CFO change also comes at an important point in Utkarsh Small Finance Bank's financial cycle.
For the quarter ended June 30, 2026, the lender reported a net loss of about ₹33.9 crore. The loss was substantially lower than approximately ₹188 crore in the March 2026 quarter and about ₹239.5 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
Lower provisions contributed to the reduction in losses.
Loan-loss provisions stood at around ₹109 crore during Q1 FY27, compared with substantially higher levels in the year-ago period. Operating profit before provisions and contingencies stood at about ₹63.6 crore.
Asset quality also improved during the quarter, although stressed assets remain an issue for the bank.
The gross non-performing asset ratio declined to 6.09 percent as of June 30, 2026, compared with 7.71 percent at the end of March 2026 and 11.42 percent in June 2025. Net NPA stood at 2.86 percent, compared with 3.29 percent three months earlier.
The bank's capital adequacy ratio stood at 17.44 percent at the end of June 2026, compared with 17.71 percent at the end of March and 19.64 percent a year earlier.
Utkarsh Small Finance Bank's investor section confirms that the lender published its Q1 FY27 financial results, investor presentation and related disclosures in August 2026.
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Microfinance stress remains part of the picture
Utkarsh Small Finance Bank has historically had significant exposure to microfinance and customers in underserved and unserved segments.
The bank commenced operations as a small finance bank in January 2017 after receiving its banking licence from the Reserve Bank of India in November 2016. Its micro-banking operations are largely concentrated in rural and semi-urban areas, while it also offers MSME loans, housing finance, commercial vehicle loans, personal loans, deposits and other retail banking services.
The deterioration in the microfinance sector over recent periods has affected asset quality at several lenders, including Utkarsh.
Economic Times reported in August that stress linked to lending to overleveraged microfinance borrowers had continued to weigh on the bank's performance. About half of the bank's loan portfolio was unsecured, according to that report.
While Utkarsh's gross NPA ratio has fallen sharply from the level seen a year earlier, the bank remains in the process of bringing credit costs and stressed assets under control.
That makes finance, provisioning, capital planning and regulatory reporting important areas for whoever takes charge as CFO.
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What Happens on September 19?
The next formal step is the Utkarsh Small Finance Bank board meeting scheduled for September 19, 2026.
According to the bank spokesperson quoted by ETBFSI, approval of the CFO appointment is expected to be one of the items taken up at that meeting.
Until that approval is granted and formally disclosed, Manmohan Shetty's appointment should be treated as proposed.
If the board approves the appointment, the bank is expected to subsequently make the required disclosure regarding the CFO appointment and its effective date.
For Utkarsh Small Finance Bank, the appointment would fill an important senior finance position following Simaria's transition to Whole-time Director and comes as the lender continues working toward improving profitability and asset quality.