The government will conduct an interview on December 16 to find a successor to current State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman O P Bhatt, whose five-year term expires in March next year.
Four deputy managing directors (DMDs), who had already been interviewed for the posts of managing director (MD), were expected to attend the interview, said a senior SBI official. One of the candidates, DMD Hemant Contractor, was named yesterday as the bank’s new chief financial officer, replacing S S Ranjan.
Contractor was looking after the wholesale banking business. He is one of the DMDs identified as a possible candidate for promotion as a managing director. Being the senior-most amongst DMDs, he is widely perceived as next in line for the post of chairman after Bhatt retires.
Besides Contractor, K Krishnakumar (head of information technology), Diwakar Gupta (incharge of rural and national banking) and P Chaudhuri (who looks after the international banking business) are eligible for the MD’s post. To be eligible for the post, one must have two years of residual service left. SBI can have seven DMDs.
The person must have at least one year experience as DMD to be eligible to be considered for higher positions of chairman and MD.
One of the managing directors, S K Bhattacharya, superannuated in October, while R Sridharan, the second managing director, is due to retire next year.
Following the amendment to the SBI Act, the government can expand the number of MDs to four.
