SBI to go for top deck rejig

Chairman, managing director to retire in few months.

Over the next 15 months, the top two floors of the State Bank of India (SBI) corporate centre at Nariman Point could see new name plates in most rooms.

The churn has already begun, with National Banking Group head Anup Banerji superannuating on Friday. Managing director Sanjay Bhattacharya is due to retire in October, while deputy managing director N Raja is due to retire in December.

Chairman Om Prakash Bhatt, would have completed four years and nine months in his 18th floor corner office by the time he retires next March. Next in line is Managing Director R Sridharan, who is due to superannuate in July 2011. Also retiring next year is deputy managing director C Narsimhan.

While the government is not known for advance planning when it comes to finding replacements for public sector bank management, this time work has already begun.

It has interviewed four deputy managing directors — Hemant Contractor (head of corporate and wholesale banking), K Krishnakumar (head of information technology), Diwakar Gupta, in-charge of rural and national banking and P Chaudhuri, looking after international banking business — to appoint as managing directors.

And, if it manages to push through the proposed amendments to the SBI Act, three of them could become managing directors.

Among other things the Bill to amend the SBI Act, which is pending in Parliament, seeks to empower the government to appoint four managing directors.

The four deputy managing directors who are in the fray have more two years of service left. Given that Sridharan will have only a few months after Bhatt’s retirement, one of the four DMDs could also move into the corner office. SBI executives said with Contractor and Krishnakumar having the longest tenures among the DMDs, they are seen as potential replacements for Bhatt.

The move to start the process of appointment of Managing Directors comes in the wake of a directive from Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is keen to ensure that a replacement is found before a senior executive superannuates.

Before Bhatt took over as SBI Chairman in July 2006, TS Bhattacharya had been the officiating chief for several months, as the government took time to appoint A K Purwar’s replacement.