FinMin to appoint 9 new CMDs for PSU banks, 10 shortlisted

Saikat Das
moneycontrol.com

The ministry of finance is set to fill up vacancies for the top job of nine individual state-owned lenders in 2013-14. It interviewed 18 executive directors of different banks on February 11. A batch of around 10 bankers has been shortlisted, sources in the banking industry told moneycontrol.com.

"Currently, the shortlist is put up to the Reserve Bank of India. The regulator will go through the past records of those bankers and would put its seal. Thereafter, it the ministry will finalise it in due processes," a source with the direct knowledge of the development said.

Those shortlisted executive directors (EDs) included Rajeev Rishi - Indian Bank, C V Rajendran - Bank of Maharashtra, Rakesh Sethi - Punjab National Bank, Amar Lal Daultani - Corporation Bank, M S Raghavan - Bank of India, V Kannan - Oriental Bank of Commerce, Arun Tiwari - Allahabad Bank, S K Jain - Bank of Baroda, B K Batra (deputy managing director) - IDBI Bank and N K Maini (DMD) - SIDBI. All of them had resumed their banking services in between 1976-1979.

In the recent time, public sector banks are grappling with the staff shortage be it at the management level or at the branch level. According to media a report, PSU banks are planning to hire around 56,500 people in next six months across junior to middle management levels.

In 2013-14, the existing CMDs (Chairman cum Managing Directors) from nine banks are going to retire. They are Ajai Kumar - Corporation Bank, Shubhalakshmi Panse - Allahabad Bank, D. Sarkar - Union Bank of India, M V Tanksale - Central Bank of India, MG Sanghvi - Syndicate Bank, R M Malla - IDBI Bank, Narendra Singh - Bank of Maharashtra, Devinder Pal Singh - Punjab & Sindh Bank and B A Prabhakar - Andhra Bank.

A senior official who is dealing with those appointments at the ministry of finance (banking operations) could not be reached for his comments on this. However, another official briefly said, "it is not yet finalized but the process is very much on. The ministry is considering some select group of bankers."

There was a six-member interview board, which took interviews for CMDs' posts. They were Rajiv Takru, secretary - department of financial services; Anand Sinha, deputy governor - RBI, Jagdish Capoor, former deputy governor - RBI (1997-2001) and a few other experts including two directors from Indian Institute of Management - Calcutta and IIM- Kozhikode. To step into CMD's shoes, an executive director has to have minimum of two years of service life.

At the same time, 35 general managers from different banks appeared for interviews held on February 12 -13. As many as 16-17 executive directors will be selected from that group.

saikat.das@network18online.com