The head of India operations at UBS AG , Manisha Girotra, has resigned, according to an internal memo, the latest high-profile exit from the Swiss bank in the world's second-fastest growing major country.

The bank, which vies with Citigroup , Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs in India's fiercely competitive investment banking business, has named Aashish Kamat, its chairman of financial institutions coverage in Asia Pacific, as the new chief executive for India.

"Manisha Girotra has informed us of her decision to retire from UBS at the end of the year to focus on developing the next phase of her career," said the memo, seen by Reuters on Thursday.

Kamat, who joined UBS in June this year, will assume responsibility for the management and development of all of UBS India businesses with immediate effect, it said.

A spokesman for UBS in Hong Kong declined to comment, while Girotra was not immediately available.

Girotra joined UBS India in 1998 and had led several cross-border deals and equity offerings including advising Unitech's telecom unit on a $1.2 billion stake sale to Norway's Telenor and $763 million treasury share sale by energy major Reliance Industries last year.

Her resignation came close on the heels of other exits from the bank's India unit.

UBS' India equity capital markets head, A. Rajagopal, had quit last year to join Standard Chartered in India. His

successor Purvesh Shah also left the bank earlier this year to join Barclays .

In August, BNP Paribas announced the appointment of Ganeshan Murugaiyan, former head of India investment banking at UBS, as head of investment banking in India.

UBS' services in India include equity and equity-linked financing, merger and acquisition advisory and debt capital market offerings.

UBS global chief executive Oswald Gruebel stepped down in September in the wake of a loss of more than $2 billion in alleged rogue trading.

(Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee and Tony Munroe; Additional reporting by and Rajesh Kurup; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)

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