The Banks Board Bureau has recommended the name of Dinesh Kumar Khara as the next chairman of State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender as incumbent Rajnish Kumar’s tenure is set to end on October 7, 2020. The bureau further stated that CS Setty would be the reserve candidate for the post.
The chairman of SBI is typically appointed from among the serving MDs of the bank. The Banks Board Bureau met on Friday and interviews with the four managing directors of SBI—Arijit Basu, Dinesh Khara, CS Setty and Ashwani Bhatia were held. Bhatia had been appointed as the MD only this week.
Reports had suggested that Kumar, who had been appointed the chairman for a period of three years from October 2017, may get an extension in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the recommendations given by the Banks Board Bureau may now put the speculation to rest and a new chairman will in all likelihood take charge at the state-owned lender in October.
“The Banks Board Bureau members interfaced with four managing directors of State Bank of India on August 28, 2020 for the forthcoming vacancy of Chairman of State Bank of India. Keeping in view their performance in the interface and their overall experience, the Bureau recommends Dinesh Kumar Khara for the vacancy of chairman in State Bank of India and Challa Sreenivasulu Setty as the candidate on the reserve list for the said vacancy,” it said.
Khara is the senior-most among the MDs. He heads the GB&S wing of SBI and has also been on the boards of the various non-banking subsidiaries of the bank.
Rajnish Kumar had succeeded Arundhati Bhattacharya as the chairman of State Bank on October 8, 2017. Bhattacharya had got a one-year extension in 2016 as the lender was merging five associate banks and the Bharatiya Mahila Bank with itself at that time.
The incoming chairman of SBI will have a tough job at hand to steer the country’s largest bank through the COVID-19 pandemic. Last month, the Reserve Bank of India’s Financial Stability Report had warned that non-performing assets across the banking sector could rise to 12.5 per cent by March 2021 in the base case scenario.
In the April-June quarter, SBI’s standalone net profit surged 81 per cent from a year ago to Rs 4,189 crore, aided by one time gain from stake sale in SBI Life Insurance. SBI’s gross NPAs in the quarter declined to 5.44 per cent from 7.53 per cent.
