Suvo Sarkar, a veteran regional banker, will return to Emirates NBD as head of its retail group after leaving Dubai’s largest bank two years ago to join National Bank of Abu Dhabi.
Sarkar, a senior banker in the region with more than two decades of experience, will become group head of retail banking at ENBD, a source told Reuters.
Sarkar was most recently general manager for consumer and elite banking at Abu Dhabi-based NBAD, the country’s largest bank by market value.
Spokesmen at ENBD and NBAD declined to comment.
Sarkar became retail banking head at ENBD in 2007 after the merger. He was influential in integrating the retail businesses of the two entities.
“Suvo’s comeback will be positive for the retail business,” one banking source said.
“ENBD is also approaching a few other senior bankers who left the bank. There has been a lot of changes recently and I wouldn’t be surprised if more people follow Suvo’s path.”
Last month, ENBD said it will merge the management teams of its two Islamic subsidiaries and appointed Jamal bin Ghalaita, who headed of one of the Islamic units, to lead the unified business.
ENBD, created in a 2007 merger between Emirates International Bank and National Bank of Dubai at the behest of Dubai’s ruler, has seen its earnings hit by its exposure to state-linked firms in the emirate.
The bank plans to lay off up to 15 percent of its workforce, sources told Reuters in March.
ENBD, which is 55.6 percent state-owned through the Investment Corporation of Dubai, was ordered by Dubai’s ruler in October to take over loss-making Dubai Bank, which had been rescued by the emirate’s government earlier in 2011.
Last year, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al Maktoum, chairman of Emirates airlines and uncle to Dubai’s ruler, was been appointed chairman of the bank.
