"We do not comment on our work for client confidentiality reasons," said Pallavi Kathuria, a senior Egon Zehnder official in response to a Reuters query. The firm in 2018 had helped Axis Bank, another private lender, to find its chief executive officer. A second source at HDFC said the differences between the top leadership over the succession has been the crucial reason for the delay in identifying a new managing director. HDFC Bank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.