BBB to interview candidates for SBI Chairman post on Friday

The three-year term of current SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar will come to an end on October 7.

The Banks Board Bureau (BBB) is scheduled to hold interviews of candidates for the post of Chairman of the State Bank of India on Friday, according to sources.

BBB is the headhunter for state-owned banks and financial institutions.

There are seven items on the agenda for the meeting of BBB, including upcoming “vacancy” of the Chairman post at SBI, as per the sources. The meeting would be held through video conferencing.

The three-year term of current SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar will come to an end on October 7.
As per the convention, the Chairman is appointed from a pool of serving Managing Directors of SBI, the country’s largest lender.

Currently, there are four Managing Directors — Dinesh Kumar Khara, Arijit Basu, C S Setty and Ashwani Bhatia.
Bhatia was elevated as a Managing Director earlier this week only.

Khara, the senior most Managing Director, will be looking for the Chairman position for the second time. In 2017, he was among the contenders.

The sources also said the possibility of Rajnish Kumar getting a one-year extension in light of the COVID-19 situation cannot be ruled out.
In 2016, Kumar’s predecessor Arundhati Bhattacharya was given an extension while SBI was completing its merger with five associate banks.

Recently, the government extended the term of Sebi Chairman Ajay Tyagi and Union Bank of India Managing Director Rajkiran Rai by 18 months and 23 months, respectively.

Besides, the sources said BBB will take a call on giving extension to executive directors at public sector banks and review eligible candidates for executive director posts.

BBB, headed by former Department of Personnel & Training Secretary Bhanu Pratap Sharma, will also screen the 14 applications for MD and CEO of IFCI Ltd, the sources said.

Secretary of Department of Financial Services, Secretary of Department of Public Enterprises and RBI Deputy Governor incharge of banking are part of BBB.

Other part-time members are Vedika Bhandarkar, former Managing Director of Credit Suisse, P Pradeep Kumar, former Managing Director of SBI, and Pradip P Shah, founder Managing Director of rating agency Crisil.