Mumbai: Soft spoken, versatile and a people’s man are some of the adjectives current and former colleagues use to describe Challa Sreenivasulu Setty, the State Bank of India managing director who is set to take over as the lender’s 27th chairman at the end of August.
The 59-year-old, who started his career as a probationary officer at SBI in 1988, has risen through the ranks to now be recommended for the highest position at the country’s largest bank.
Setty is a solid banker with experience of almost all big verticals at the state-run bank, said PK Gupta, a former managing director at SBI. “He has handled corporate banking, stressed assets and also retail banking. He also has international experience with a stint in New York. He knows what needs to be done and is a peoples’ person which is a big advantage.”
Setty had succeeded Gupta when he retired from SBI as MD retail business.
His experience and understanding of the banking behemoth holds him in good stead to lead the bank in the future, his former and current colleagues said. It would have been a surprise had he not been selected for the post, they said.
Since being elevated to the role of MD in January 2020, Setty has overseen the bank’s risk, compliance and stressed asset resolution group (SARG), retail business and operations before taking charge of his current remit – managing director for international banking, global markets and technology – in June 2022.
“He shepherded the corporate accounts division of the bank as chief general manager between 2013 and 2017 when there was intense pressure due to rising bad loans and delays in payments,” recalled a former chairman of SBI.
Setty was the favourite to get the job. He was the most experienced among the three MDs interviewed by the Financial Services Institution Bureau, that on Saturday recommended his name. He was also the reserve candidate when the current chairman, Dinesh Kumar Khara, was recommended for the chairman’s post in 2020.
His appointment will have to be ratified by the appointments committee of the Cabinet, headed by the Prime Minister.
“He has covered all models in SBI and is known within the bank for his sincerity and professionalism. His stint as deputy managing director in the SARG department actually started the recovery trend in the bank. He took some tough decisions at that time but never victimised any of his people,” said a former chief general manager who had worked closely with him.
Setty has a bachelor’s degree in agriculture and is a certified associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers (now the Indian Institute of Banking and Finance). He inherits a banking giant that is seeing its best days for decades. But here lies the challenge for him.
“He has inherited a 787 Dreamliner that is at cruising speed. How else and where could he improve is a question. One area is the YONO (digital banking) application which needs some revamping. But to improve from this position is a challenging question in itself,” said a former colleague.
Chairman Khara has highlighted the ability to source deposits across geographies and products as a key monitorable for the bank and has set a target of 1.10% return on assets by the end of this fiscal year.
During Khara’s tenure of almost four years, the bank’s stock price has surged from less than ₹200 to ₹849, reflecting its strong growth and improved asset quality.
