Why HDFC Bank denied loans to Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi

Noted banker Aditya Puri has advised his peers to clearly separate personal friendships from banking and cited how his bank turned down a loan request from the now-fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya.

Explaining how HDFC Bank had refused loans to the ex-liquor baron Mallya, Puri said, “a banker can have a coffee with any person and then do what he wants,” stressing that it was his long time colleague Paresh Sukthankar who actually declined the loan to Mallya.

“If you are a bad risk, you are a bad risk. You can be my good friend, I can give you coffee and send you away. Just for your information, they (Mallya’s officials) came to me for a loan and I gave them coffee and told them that I will consider the loan. And then Paresh turned it down,” the HDFC Bank chief said, at a function of launching a book on the bank by journalist-writer Tamal Bandopadyay here this evening.