Private professionals to head Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank

Financial Services Secy Adhia

IN A major shift, government has recruited private sector professionals to head two big state-owned banks — Bank of Baroda and Canara Bank.
The move is viewed as a part of process to reform the public sector banking industry. The PSBs account for over 70 per cent of the banking business. But the mounting non-performing assets (NPAs) has been a major irritant.
In past, public sector banks heads...
were selected from among the state-run banks or government officers.
Apart from these two banks, Financial Services Secretary Hasmukh Adhia also announced names of MDs and CEOs of Bank of India, IDBI Bank and Punjab National Bank. These three executive heads are serving officials in other government-owned banks.
Adhia also announced appointments of non-executive chairman at Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank, Vijaya Bank and Indian Bank. The government also picked up private sector executives for the post of non-Executive chairman of Bank of Baroda and Canara Bank.
Managing Director and CEO of VBHC Value Homes Pvt Ltd P S Jayakumar (53) has been selected to head Bank of Baroda. MD and CEO of private sector lender The Laxmi Vilas Bank Rakesh Sharma (57) will head Canara Bank.
MO Rego (deputy managing director, IDBI Bank), Kishore Kharat Piraji (Executive Director, Union Bank of India), and Usha Ananthasubramanian (CMD, Bhartiya Mahila Bank) are the new MD and CEOs of Bank of India, IDBI Bank and Punjab National Bank, respectively.
Ravi Venkatesan (51), Independent Director, Infosys has been appointed as non-Exeuctive Chairman of Bank of Baroda. T N Manoharan (59), Director, Tech Mahindra, Public Health Foundation is non-Executive Chairman of Canara Bank.
G Padmananbhan (Retired ED of RBI), G Narayanan (Retired ED, Indian Overseas Bank) and T C V Subramainian (Retired CMD, Exim Bank) have been appointed as non-Executive Chairman of Bank of India, Vijaya Bank and Indian Bank, respectively.
Five MD and CEOs were appointed earlier.
The government had also decided to split the post of Chairman and Managing Director and said that in the subsequent vacancies to be filled up the CEO will get the designation of MD & CEO and there would be another person who would be appointed as non-Executive Chairman of PSBs.
“This approach is based on global best practices and as per the guidelines in the Companies Act to ensure appropriate checks and balances. The selection process for both these positions has been transparent and meritocratic,” Adhia said.
“The entire process of selection for MD and CEO was revamped. Private sector candidates were also allowed to apply for the position of MD and CEO of the five top banks. Three stage screening was done for the MD’s position culminating into final interview by three different panels,” Adhia added.