Interim Group Chief Financial Officer — Bank Acquisition Integration

The mandate

The serving CFO chose not to continue beyond the legal close of a mid-sized bank acquisition, leaving the group without a single finance authority for the first consolidated quarter. Purchase accounting, capital allocation and duplicate control ownership are still unsettled while external reporting dates remain immovable.

The interim must be in seat before the opening balance sheet is finalised, no later than four weeks from acceptance, and is expected to serve for fourteen months. A global permanent search starts after the first clean consolidated half-year, with up to two months reserved for induction and regulator engagement.

Handover requires an unqualified integrated statutory audit, reconciled purchase-price allocation, board-approved capital and liquidity plans, retirement of duplicate finance controls and a forecast process used twice by the combined executive team. The permanent CFO must also receive documented positions on every material accounting judgement.

The interim may sign routine finance representations, determine accounting positions with the auditor, redeploy the approved integration budget and appoint time-bound specialists. Audit Committee approval is mandatory for provisions above ₹100 crore, capital actions, policy changes with material earnings impact, permanent leadership appointments and integration spend exceeding the ₹35 crore delegation.

Commercial integration, branch rationalisation and credit-policy harmonisation sit with the respective business, operations and risk leaders. The CFO will quantify their effects but is not being hired to negotiate the transaction retrospectively or lead customer migration.

Why this seat is open

The transaction timetable overtook the board's succession plan when the incumbent confirmed departure at close. Neither legacy finance team can neutrally adjudicate purchase accounting and control consolidation. An interim group CFO provides accountable independence through the first audit while the board searches for a long-term leader.

What you will own

• Approve the opening balance sheet and purchase-price allocation with a complete audit trail for assumptions, challenges and committee decisions.
• Unify the group chart of accounts, consolidation calendar and materiality policy without weakening regulated-entity reporting.
• Decide the target finance-control ownership and retire duplicate reconciliations only after replacement controls pass operating-effectiveness tests.
• Produce an integrated capital, liquidity and earnings outlook with downside cases tied to synergy slippage and credit deterioration.
• Govern each external reporting close through signed issue logs, late-adjustment thresholds and named executive representations.
• Present material accounting judgements, integration economics and forecast variance directly to the Audit Committee.
• Transfer audit correspondence, capital commitments, unresolved tax matters, finance talent decisions and the next reporting calendar to the successor.

Candidate qualifications

• Previously held group CFO, bank CFO or deputy group CFO authority in a regulated financial institution of comparable balance-sheet scale.
• Completed acquisition accounting and finance integration through at least one clean consolidated statutory audit.
• Can defend material accounting estimates, expected-credit-loss judgements and capital consequences before auditors and an Audit Committee.
• Led controllership, FP&A, treasury finance, tax and investor reporting rather than a single finance specialism.
• Integrated finance organisations with competing legacy policies while retaining critical close and regulatory talent.
• Brings current knowledge of Indian banking reporting, capital governance and listed-entity disclosure expectations.

Non-negotiables

• Can assume full-time Mumbai accountability before opening-balance-sheet sign-off.
• No financial interest in the transaction advisers, statutory auditor or either institution's material vendors.
• Will accept a documented separation between finance judgement and commercial synergy ownership.
• Must have personally signed or co-signed regulated financial statements following an acquisition.

1. 49 words maximum. What is your earliest start date relative to an opening-balance-sheet deadline four weeks away?
2. 49 words maximum. Identify one acquisition accounting judgement you defended and the evidence that resolved auditor challenge.
3. 49 words maximum. Which finance control would you refuse to consolidate before the first integrated audit, and why?