BBB recommends Janakiraman and Tewari for SBI MD posts

The Banks Board Bureau (BBB), the headhunter for state-owned banks and financial institutions, on Monday recommended the names of Swaminthan Janakiraman and Ashwini Kumar Tewari for the posts of managing director at State Bank of India.

The Banks Board Bureau (BBB), the headhunter for state-owned banks and financial institutions, on Monday recommended the names of Swaminthan Janakiraman and Ashwini Kumar Tewari for the posts of managing director at State Bank of India. The country's largest lender SBI is headed by chairman with four managing directors to assist.

The bureau interviewed 16 candidates from SBI and nationalised banks for the two positions of managing director in State Bank of India, BBB said in a statement. "Keeping in view their performance in the interface and extant parameters, the Bureau recommends the following names in order of merit--Swaminthan Janakiraman for the first vacancy of MD in SBI and Ashwini Kumar Tewari for the second vacancy of MD in SBI," it said.

The vacancies arises following recommendation of Dinesh Kumar Khara as chairman of the bank while other due retirement of Arjit Basu as managing director later this month. Prakash Chandra Kandpal and Alok Kumar Choudhary are the candidates on the reserve list for the said vacancies, in this order, it said.

Janakiraman is currently deputy managing director (Finance) while Tiwari is serving as managing director and chief executive of SBI Card, a subsidiary of SBI. With this exercise, the government has completed the process of appointment in PSU banks for the current fiscal.

The decision on the appointment will be taken by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. BBB is headed by former Department of Personnel and Training Secretary B P Sharma. Secretary of Department of Financial Services, Secretary of Department of Public Enterprises and RBI Deputy Governor incharge of banking are part of BBB. Other part-time members are Vedika Bhandarkar, former Managing Director of Credit Suisse, P Pradeep Kumar, former Managing Director of SBI, and Pradip P Shah, founder Managing Director of rating agency Crisil.

The prime minister, in 2016, approved the constitution of BBB as a body of eminent professionals and officials to make recommendations for appointment of whole-time directors as well as non-executive chairpersons of public sector banks (PSBs). It was also entrusted with the task of engaging with the board of directors of all PSBs to formulate appropriate strategies for their growth and development.