New heads at Canara, Corporation banks

The Karnataka-headquartered public sector lenders Canara Bank and Corporation Bank have new chairmen, effective September 1, 2010.

S Raman, a banker for 36 years, has assumed charge as the new chairman & managing director (CMD) of Canara Bank, India’s third largest public sector lender. Raman succeeds A C Mahajan who retired after serving as CMD for over two years. Raman will have a tenure of two years up to September, 2012 as CMD in the Canara bank.

Raman, prior to this posting at Canara Bank, was serving as executive director of Union Bank of India from October, 2008. He was in charge of overseeing treasury, corporate credit, transaction banking among others.

Raman comes on board at the Bangalore-headquartered bank when its asset book is at Rs1.4 lakh crore which grew 23 per cent during the last quarter. Deposits at Rs2.38 lakh crore grew by 23 per cent as well.

Raman joined the Bank of India in 1974 and had two stints overseas while serving the bank. He had also worked in different parts of the country including Nagpur, Hyderabad, New Delhi, Pune, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Bhubaneswar. He was also the zonal manager in Gujarat and Orissa.

Similarly, Ramnath Pradeep assumed charge as the new CMD of Mangalore-headquartered Corporation Bank from September 1, 2010.

Ramnath, who has 26 years of experience in banking sector, started his career at Dena Bank and held the post of executive director of Central Bank of India prior to this appointment. He succeeds J M Garg, who was holding the post of chairman for more than two years in the bank.

Corporation Bank’s total business stood at Rs1,55,849 crore by end of June 2010, which is a 30 per cent rise over the same period last year.

Its net profit for the quarter-ended June 2010 increased by 28 per cent to Rs333.78 crore.