Public sector banks' top brass set for rejig

A major reshuffle in the top brass of nationalised banks is on the cards, with the finance ministry's banking division scheduled to hold interviews for the posts of five chairpersons on January 24.

This will be the second part of the ongoing exercise to fill up top-level vacancies in the country's public sector banks. Interviews for the posts of 16 executive directors were held on January 8, 9 here.

The Appointments Committee of the banking division had invited 88 general managers for interviews to fill up eight vacancies in the executive director (ED) category, allot an additional ED each to six large banks and keep two in a pool for future appointments to this position.

Punjab National Bank Chief General Manager BM Mittal and Indian Bank General Manager Jagmohan Garg were two of them.

Similarly, eight EDs have been called for interviews on January 24 for filling up five chairman and managing director positions being vacated by the present chiefs of Oriental Bank of Commerce, PNB, Bank of India, IDBI and UCO Bank.

Sources said because of lack of adequate experience and with two years of service left, only eight EDs have been invited for the chairperson posts.

There could also be a lateral movement of chairmen from smaller to bigger banks. According to sources, Indian Bank Chairman K C Chakrabarty could be asked to take charge of PNB "� the country's second-largest PSU bank, when the current incumbent "� S C Gupta "� retires on May 31.

The other bank chairman who is retiring on March 31 is OBC's K N Prithviraj.Similarly, Indian Overseas Bank Chairman T S Narayansami is also being touted as the next head of Bank of India after the current chairman "� M Balachandran "� retires on April 30.

If these two chairmen are transferred, two EDs will be promoted to fill up the vacancies created by Chakrabarty and Narayansami. Then, the two ED slots falling vacant will be filled up from the pool maintained by the ministry's banking division.

The six large public sector banks likely to get an additional ED each are PNB, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India and Union Bank of India.

The Banking Regulations Act, 1949 was recently amended to appoint more than one ED in a bank so as to ensure the smooth functioning of state-run banks, which have seen rapid growth in size and business volume.