No more, says Finance Ministry after hiring private professionals to head two public banks

New Delhi: Having appointed private sector professionals to head two large public sector banks (PSBs), the Finance Ministry today said further such hiring of CEO and  managing directors in banks would be from existing public sector talent pool and not from outside. “For five large banks we had different procedure. For remaining banks we are going to hire from the pool of executive directors of the public sector banks itself,” Financial Services Secretary Hasmukh Adhia told PTI. [caption id=“attachment_2395012” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The govt appointed Rakesh Sharma to head Canara Bank. Screengrab[/caption] “The eligibility criteria for the remaining bank vacancies have been approved and that is only for competition within the system. For remaining banks there would be normal procedure of selection from among the pool of executive directors,” he said. There is a vacancy for a CEO and MD in Indian Bank and Andhra Bank and there will be a vacancy in UCO Bank by the end of this month, he said. “We will be starting the procedure for selection and hope to complete the process within three months,” he said. In a first, the government last week roped in private sector professionals to run two of its largest banks — Bank of Baroda and Canara Bank — as it announced appointment of MDs and CEOs of five lenders. Managing Director and CEO of VBHC Value Homes Pvt Ltd PS Jayakumar (53), former Citi banker was appointed to head Bank of Baroda. MD and CEO of private sector lender Laxmi Vilas Bank Rakesh Sharma (57) was hired to head Canara Bank. Apart from these two banks, the government also appointed MDs and CEOs of Bank of India, IDBI Bank and Punjab National Bank. These three executive heads were serving officials in other government-owned banks. M O Rego (Deputy Managing Director, IDBI Bank), Kishore Kharat Piraji (Executive Director, Union Bank of India), and Usha Ananthasubramanian (CMD, Bhartiya Mahila Bank) are the new MD and CEOs of Bank of India, IDBI Bank and Punjab National Bank, respectively. The government had decided to separate the post of Chairman and Managing Director by prescribing that in the subsequent vacancies to be filled up the CEO will get the designation of MD & CEO and there would be another person who would be appointed as non-Executive Chairman of PSBs. “The approach was based on global best practices and as per the guidelines in the Companies Act to ensure appropriate checks and balances. The selection process for both these positions has been transparent and meritocratic. “The entire process of selection for MD and CEO was revamped. Private sector candidates were also allowed to apply for the position of MD and CEO of the five top banks. Three stage screening was done for the MD’s position culminating into final interview by three different panels,” Adhia had said last week. PTI