Bank Board Bureau recommends name of bank bosses

MUMBAI: The Bank Board Bureau (BBB), tasked to improve governance in government-owned banks, has recommended more than a dozen names to don the role of a managing director and chief executive officer of state-owned banks.
It has suggested Ansula Kant, the chief finance officer or CFO of country’s banking behemoth – the State Bank of India - to become the managing director. The position fell vacant as B Sriram, the incumbent MD has moved to head IDBI Bank that has received a new lease of life from LIC of India, the largest insurer infusing about Rs 10,000-13,000 crore in tranches.

Earlier a month ago, BBB headed by B P Sharma, former secretary of Department of Personnel and Training, embarked on an assignment of shortlisting candidates for about 30 top level vacancies in the public sector banks beginning June 13.

It is said to have interviewed about five dozen senior executives from different government-owned banks as it sought recommend more than a dozen candidates to run public sector banks, battling with huge pile of bad loans.

BBB has finally recommended 14 people to be appointed as managing director and chief executive directors of different banks. They include Gopal Murli Bhagat, P V Bharathi, M K Bhattacharya, Padmaja Chunduru, Atul Kumar Goel, S Harisankar and many others.

These recommendations are based on interactions held by the BBB and are subject to various clearances. The government will make the final decision on appointments, BBB said in a release.

The Banks Board Bureau has recommended at least 22 candidates from different banks for the executive director positions at least a dozen state-run banks even as it is not clear whether the government would go by its recommendations alone, ET reported about a week earlier.