Mumbai, July 27: Speculation over whether Shikha Sharma would continue to lead Axis Bank was finally put to rest today when the private lender extended her tenure as the managing director and chief executive officer by three years.

Consequently, the veteran banker will be at the helm of the country's third-largest private bank till June 2021.

"The board, at its meeting held on July 26, approved the re-appointment of Shikha Sharma as the managing director and chief executive of the bank for a period of three years, with effect from June 1, 2018," Axis Bank said in a regulatory filing today.

While Shikha Sharma's term was to end in June 2018, the announcement comes amid rumours of her exiting the bank which she had joined in 2009.

There were reports that the lender had appointed an executive search company to find her successor.

There were also reports that she had been sounded out by Tata Sons chairman N. Chandrasekaran to lead the group's financial services businesses. The bank had denied such rumours.

Earlier in the day, the Axis Bank chief left everyone guessing about her next move when she said her immediate focus was on building the bank while pointing out that the appointment of the head hunting agency was in the interest of best governance.

"The appointment of a search firm is in the interest of best governance and it does not preclude anything about whether I will do another term or not... You should wait to hear that announcement from the board at the appropriate time. My job right now is to focus on working with the team and doing the best we can for our customers and other stakeholders," she told reporters earlier in the day when Axis Bank announced the acquisition of Freecharge.

Sharma has a distinguished career in the financial sector where she began with ICICI in 1980.

In her 29 years with the ICICI group, she was instrumental in setting up ICICI Securities, a joint venture between ICICI Ltd and JP Morgan.

She was the managing director and CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company when she left the group.

At Axis Bank, she has been instrumental in increasing its presence in the retail segment and expanding its footprint in investment banking, besides strengthening its product portfolio in the payments space.

In 2010, Axis Bank had snapped up the investment banking and equities business of Enam Securities Pvt Ltd in an all-stock deal worth Rs 2,067 crore.

However, in recent times, the lender, like its peers, has been facing the challenge of bad loans. In the first quarter ended June 30, 2017, the bank's asset quality was stable.