At least eight Indian banks set to see new chiefs in 2024

Banks

Some of the major public and private sector banks will see a change of guard at their top in 2024. At least eight banks, including Axis Bank, DCB Bank, Federal Bank, Punjab National Bank (PNB), Indian Bank, IDFC First Bank, J&K Bank and Bank of Maharashtra (BoM), may see changes at the top post.

Private banks

In the case of Axis Bank, the tenure of Amitabh Chaudhry, the current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) will end on December 31, 2024. The same is the case with Atul Goel of Punjab National Bank (PNB). There is no update on the selection process of the new MD & CEO of Axis and PNB bank yet.

Also, Shyam Srinivasan, who took over as the Managing Director (MD) and CEO of Federal Bank MD in 2010 and has been at the helm since then, will see his tenure ending on September 22, 2024.

However, there is no recent update available from the bank’s side on the new MD’s selection.

For DCB Bank, the search for the new CEO is on as the bank’s board has short-listed names for the position of MD and CEO and will soon submit the list to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for approval, the lender said in an exchange filing on October 20. The term of the current MD and CEO, Murali Natrajan is set to end on April 28, 2024.

V Vaidyanathan, who took over as the MD & CEO of IDFC First Bank in December 2018 after the Capital First and IDFC Bank merger, will see his current tenure ending on December 19, 2024.

There is no latest update from the bank regarding the new MD & CEO.

Public sector banks

In August 2021, the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) appointed Shanti Lal Jain as the new MD and CEO of Indian Bank. Jain’s current tenure as the MD and CEO of the bank is set to end on August 1, 2024.

In the case of the Bank of Maharashtra (BoM), the current MD and CEO, A S Rajeev was appointed to the helm in 2018. Rajeev, whose tenure was to end in 2023, received a-six month extension from the government in November 2023. Rajeev’s tenure is set to end in April 2024.

The tenure of Baldev Prakash, who is the MD and CEO of J&K Bank will end on December 31, 2024. Prakash was appointed on December 30, 2021.

What happened in 2023?

In 2023, there were several new appointments and reappointments to the top positions in banks.

Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank, UCO Bank, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda (BOB)and Canara Bank got new MDs and CEOs this year or saw re-appointments of existing chiefs. Also, the government approved the appointments of 12 new Executive Directors (EDs) to various public sector banks (PSBs). Here's a list of major bank heads who have been appointed in 2023:

Debadatta Chand on July 1, 2023, assumed charge as MD and CEO of the Bank of Baroda (BoB). He took charge from Sanjiv Chadha, whose tenure ended on June 30, 2023. Before he was appointed as MD, Chand had been serving as the Executive Director at the bank since March 2021.

However, for Kotak Mahindra Bank Ashok Vaswani was appointed MD and CEO following veteran banker and founder Uday Kotak's resignation from the post last month after being associated with the bank for 21 years.

Vaswani's appointment is for a period of three years from the date of taking charge, which shall not be later than January 1, 2024.

Other banks

Kerala-based South Indian Bank got its new MD and CEO, P R Seshadri, in October. he has been appointed for a period of three years with effect from October 1, 2023.

Public sector lender, UCO Bank in May 2023 got Ashwani Kumar as the new MD.

Canara Bank got its new MD and CEO, K Satyanarayana Raju, in February 2023. He replaced L V Prabhakar who demitted office on December 31, 2022. The government appointed Rajneesh Karnatak as MD of the Bank of India (BoI) in April 2023.

PSBs facing staff shortage?

In 2023, banks have struggled to cope with the challenge of staff shortage. According to the data given by the government in the Parliament; a total of 1,23,781 employees have been recruited between FY 2019-20 and 2022-23. Of this, 14,106 were recruited in 2021-22 and 14,517 in 2022-23.

“Governments claim based on individual bank management's reporting is far from the truth. For a decade or so banks are not filling in vacancies even arising on account of death, retirement, promotion or resignation, leave alone on account of an increase in branch network or business. The entire part time sub staff jobs are outsourced,” said Devidas Tuljapurkar,

General Secretary Maharashtra State Bank Employees Federation and Joint Secretary All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA).