Rajnish Kumar, the former chairman of India's largest state-run lender State Bank of India (SBI), has been appointed as an independent non-executive director of Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation's (HSBC) Asian entity, the multinational financial services entity said on August 30.
Kumar will also be a member of the Audit Committee and Risk Committee of HSBC Asia, which includes the Indian operation of the bank.
Notably, Kumar had retired as the SBI chief in October 2020, after working with the bank for nearly 40 years. He had joined SBI as a probationary officer in 1980, and is credited with the mega-merger of seven banks with India’s largest lender.
During Kumar's tenure as SBI chairman, the bank moved ahead with its digital drive through SBI’s YONO platform and consolidated its troubled corporate accounts. The bailout of stressed private lender Yes Bank was one of the biggest challenges during his term.
After retirement, Kumar had taken up an advisory role with Baring Private Equity Partners India in February 2021. In the same month, Kotak Investment Advisors (KIAL) announced that he would be the exclusive advisor for its $1 billion Special Situation Fund.
Kumar is not the first retiring SBI chairman to join private organisations. His predecessor at SBI, Arundhati Bhattacharya, is the India CEO of US Cloud-based service provider, Salesforce.com Inc. Most other former SBI chairmen too have taken up either advisory roles or directorship in different companies.
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