Pratip Chaudhuri set to be next SBI chief

NEW DELHI: Pratip Chaudhuri, State Bank of India's deputy managing director, is expected to be the next chairman of the country's largest bank.

Chaudhuri is the finance ministry's candidate to step into the corner room on the 18th floor of the SBI headquarters that overlooks Mumbai's Brabourne Stadium when the incumbent, Om Prakash Bhatt, retires in March.

The low-profile banker, who in his present assignment is in charge of SBI's international banking business, had earlier been interviewed for the post of managing director but the government has not yet finalized the appointment.

Instead, he is set for a bigger New Year gift after finance minister Pranab Mukherjee cleared his candidature.

Mukherjee followed the advice of a selection committee, headed by Reserve Bank of India governor D Subbarao, which had put another deputy managing director, Hemant Contractor, as the second-most preferred candidate. Contractor was also interviewed for the MD's post, which has been lying vacant.

Following the finance minister's clearance, the proposal will now be processed by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet. Till recently, Contractor was in-charge of the large corporate group dealings and has been appointed as the chief financial officer of SBI.

If the appointment comes through, 56-year-old Chaudhuri will have a term of over three years at the largest Indian lender, which has now spread its wings across continents to cater to the needs of Indian companies going overseas. Chaudhuri, a science graduate, had joined SBI as a probationary officer in 1974 and has been handling his present portfolio since April 2009.

He is credited with successfully working on the amalgamation of the State Bank of Saurashtra, an SBI subsidiary , with the parent—an exercise that set the stage for merger of the six remaining associate banks.

Apart from Chaudhuri and Contractor, the selection committee had earlier this month also interviewed deputy managing directors A Krishna Kumar and Diwakar Gupta for the chairman's post. Kumar is in-charge of information technology, while Gupta handles financial inclusion and other initiatives.

Kumar, Gupta and Contractor are likely to be elevated as managing directors of SBI after Chaudhuri's appointment as chairman.

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