FinMin initiates process for finding new SBI chief
The finance ministry has initiated the process for finding new chief of the country’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) as Arundhati Bhattacharya’s extended term comes to an end on October 6.
“The Department of Financial Services has communicated to the Banks Board Bureau the emerging vacancies at the top level of PSU banks, which will have to be filled during course of the year,” a senior ministry official said.
This also includes chairman and one managing director of the SBI, which alone has market share of over 20 per cent.
Bhattacharya will complete her four-year term as the SBI chairperson on October 6.
Besides chairman, SBI has four managing directors looking after different departments.
The post assumes significance as the bank has recently merged five associates and the Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) pushing the SBI into the league of top 50 banks globally in terms of assets.
The State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH), State Bank of Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Patiala (SBP) and State Bank of Travancore (SBT), besides the BMB, merged with the SBI with effect from April 1. The process of integration would at least take a year.
The government had in February approved the merger of these five associate banks with the SBI. Later in March, the Cabinet approved merger of the BMB as well.
The SBI first merged State Bank of Saurashtra with itself in 2008. Two years later, State Bank of Indore was merged with it.
For the fourth quarter ended March 2017, the bank reported more than doubling of its net profit on the back of increased lending and reduction in provisioning for bad loans.
Net profit of the bank on standalone basis rose to ~2,814.82 crore for the March quarter as against ~1,263.81 crore in the corresponding period of the previous financial year.
For the entire financial year ended March 2017, the net profit of the bank improved by 5.36 per cent to ~10,484 crore as against ~9,951 crore in the previous financial year.
With stock prices inching up, the SBI has lined up share sale through which it intends to raise ~15,000 crore during the current financial year.
It is in the process of appointing six merchant bankers for managing its proposed share sale. The central government holds 62.2 per cent stake in the bank as of March 2017.