Mumbai: Nine senior executives of State Bank of India (SBI) group are in the race to be elevated as managing director of the country’s largest bank, people familiar with the process said.
The post fell vacant after former MD Swaminathan Janakiraman took over as deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on June 26.
SBI has four managing directors, each of whom handle different departments and are also part of the bank’s board of directors.
“To be eligible, existing deputy managing directors (DMDs) in the bank have to complete at least three years as chief general manager (CGM) and DMD combined. They also must have at least two years as residual service as on the date of vacancy,” a person aware of the process said. “Taking these two parameters, there are nine executives from inside bank and its subsidiaries that make the cut. These executives have finished their initial assessment and given their consent to be considered for the MD post in the bank,” the person said.
These executives include Vinay Tonse, DMD corporate accounts group (CAG) which banks large corporate clients; Saloni Narayan, DMD, finance, who is in charge of budgeting, capital planning, financial reporting, investor relations, and secretarial compliance; Rana Ashutosh Kumar Singh, DMD, transaction banking and new initiatives; Ruma Dey, DMD and group compliance officer; and Amitava Chatterjee, DMD, commercial clients group, which looks after accounts less than Rs 500 crore.
Four others who also make the cut are presently posted with the bank’s subsidiaries. They are Rama Mohan Rao Amara, CEO of the bank’s credit card subsidiary SBI Card; Kishore Kumar Poludasu, CEO of SBI General Insurance; Shamsher Singh, CEO of SBI Funds Management; and Deepak Kumar Lalla, CEO of SBI Cap Securities.
An SBI spokesperson did not reply to an email seeking comment until press time Sunday.
“Of the nine, four, namely Saloni Narayan, Vinay Tonse, Rana Ashutosh and Amara Ram Mohan are in the race the second time as they had also been interviewed last year after then MD Ashwani Bhatia was selected to be whole time director at Sebi,” said a second person aware of the process. “Tonse was the reserve candidate when (Alok Kumar) Choudhary was selected,” the person said.
Choudhary, who is MD in charge of retail business and operations, was appointed last June for a period of two years.
To be sure, current government norms say the department of financial services (DFS) can also consider executive directors (EDs) of other public sector banks who have completed two years in the post to be appointed as MD. But never has an outside executive made it to the MD position of SBI.
“The DFS will prepare a list of internal and external names and those will be called for an interview with the Financial Services Institutions Bureau (FSIB), the body created to find replacements for top government posts,” a third person aware of the process said.
ET could not ascertain the names of EDs from other banks who could qualify to be interview.
All the three people cited above said the interviews are expected later this month with the first and a reserve candidate most likely being announced on the last day of the multiple-day interview process. Dates for the interviews have not yet been fixed.
The MD post in SBI is prestigious because of the sheer size and scale of the nation’s largest lender. Each of its MDs handles business and operations that dwarf most banks in India.
RBI deputy governor Swaminathan was MD corporate banking and subsidiaries in charge of SBI’s large corporate and commercial credit businesses, as well as subsidiaries of the bank.
Though these departments have not been allotted to any of the existing MDs, it is SBI chairman Dinesh Khara’s prerogative to allocate departments whenever a new MD takes over.
