Dinesh Khara tipped to be next State Bank of India chairman
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: The Banks Board Bureau on Friday recommended Dinesh Kumar Khara, managing director of the State Bank of India (SBI), to take over as the chairman of India’s largest lender from the incumbent Rajnish Kumar, who steps down on October 7.
“Keeping in view their performance in the interface and their overall experience, the Bureau recommends as follows—Dinesh Kumar Khara for the vacancy of chairman in State Bank of India and Challa Sreenivasulu Setty as the candidate on the reserve list for the said vacancy,” an official statement said.
The board met virtually earlier in the day to interview the four managing directors of SBI—Ashwani Bhatia, Arijit Basu, Setty and Khara—for the post of chairman.
The final appointment will be announced by the Union government. Interestingly, the notification came on Khara’s birthday, according to official records. Khara, 59, joined SBI as a probationary officer in 1984 and has experience in all facets of commercial banking, including retail credit, deposit mobili-short-term sation, international banking operations and branch management.
Khara is also credited with successfully completing the merger of SBI with its five associate banks and Bhartiya Mahila Bank. Prior to being appointed as MD, Khara was the chief executive of SBI Funds Management Pvt. Ltd.
According to the website of SBI General Insurance, as a general manager in the associates and subsidiaries department of SBI Corporate Centre, Khara worked closely on operational and strategy issues of various non-banking subsidiaries of SBI. He has also worked in the bank’s Chicago office and was associated with the overseas acquisition of Indian Ocean International Bank Mauritius (now SBI Mauritius) during his stint in the overseas expansion wing of its International Banking Group.