Kolkata: Ujjivan Small Finance Bank has seen a sudden gap in leadership with managing director and chief executive officer stepping down on health grounds.Ujjivan board at a meeting Tuesday accepted Nautiyal's early retirement request and approved the appointment of executive director Carol Furtado as the interim head subject to the regulator's approval, the bank announced in a regulatory filing to the stock exchanges.The bank said it would initiate the process of identifying a successor to Nautiyal and submit its recommendation to the Reserve Bank of India in due course.Its share price dipped 5.4% Tuesday to 65.40 on BSE as investors were seen offloading their positions reacting to the development.Nautiyal sought early retirement through an email sent on August 31 evening citing health issues. The former managing director at the country's largest lender State Bank of India assumed the leadership role in Ujjivan on July 1 2024 for a three year term."We would like to make better succession planning in the future," a bank official said in a hurriedly arranged analyst call following the board meeting.Nautiyal ceased to be the MD & CEO and key managerial personnel from September 1. He will remain on leave during the three-month notice period and formally retire from the bank on November 30, according to the bank’s exchange filing.The development came at a time when Ujjivan was trying to diversify its business and reduce the weightage on unsecured microfinance loans to improve business stability. The RBI in April returned the bank's universal bank application asking to diversify businesses more."We remain confident about business continuity," Furtado said at the analyst call.Furtado is herself a seasoned banker with over three decades of experience across business, strategy, operations, people and institutional functions. Carol was part of the leadership team that laid the foundation of Ujjivan.The board at its meeting noted that the bank's leadership development initiatives and robust succession planning ensure that the organization remains well-equipped to address current operational needs and manage this transition period seamlessly, the bank said in the stock exchange notice.