HDFC Bank chief financial officer Srinivasan Vaidyanathan said HDFC Bank, the country’s largest private bank, will complete its reverse merger with its parent Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd (HDFC) by July 2023.

Vaidyanathan said in a post-results analyst call after releasing the bank’s January-March 2023 quarterly results that they had sought approval from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) due to the change in regulators.

“We think it’s June or maybe July, and given where we are with various things, that’s what we think the timeline is,” Vaidyanathan said.

HDFC Ltd has received letters of approval from the Reserve Bank of India, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the Pension Funds Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) and Competition Commission of India, as well as BSE and the National Stock Exchange of India.

“We have applied to SEBI as it involves a change of promoter and notification to mutual fund order, so we have gone to SEBI to get their permission. We have also gone to IRDAI due to a change of promoter in terms of the insurance. We are waiting for their nod,” Vaidyanathan said.

After seeking approval from all regulators, Vaidyanathan said, “We will work with the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) to bring this to the final stage”.

The merger of HDFC and HDFC Bank has been in the news for some time. Back in 2015, Deepak Parekh, chairman of the country’s leading mortgage lender, said that his company could consider merging with HDFC Bank if favourable circumstances were favourable.

The biggest deal in Indian corporate history, HDFC Bank agreed on April 4 last year to buy the largest housing finance company for about $40 billion, creating a financial services powerhouse. The proposed entity will have a consolidated asset base of around Rs 18 lakh crore.

Once the transaction becomes effective, HDFC Bank will be 100% owned by public shareholders, while HDFC’s existing shareholders will own 41%.