FSIB recommends CS Setty as next SBI chairman

MUMBAI: Challa Sreenivasulu Setty, the senior-most managing director of the State Bank of India, is set to be the next chairman of the nation’s largest lender provided the government goes ahead with the recommendation of his name by the nodal selection body Financial Services Institutions Bureau (FSIB).

Setty, who has spent close to 36 years at the bank, has scored over the other two contenders – Ashwini Kumar Tewari and Vinay M Tonse, who are also the managing directors of the bank – at the interviews held on Friday in Mumbai, the FSIB said in its website.

The interviews were earlier scheduled for May 21 – 22 but were called off at the last minute.

“The Financial Services Institutions Bureau has interfaced with three candidates on June 29, 2024 for the position of chairman in State Bank of India. Keeping in view their performance in the interface, their overall experience and the extant parameters, the bureau recommends CS Setty for the position,” FSIB said in its website.

The role of the FSIB is to recommend a name and the final decision is taken by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by the prime minister. But normally, the committee goes ahead with the FSIB recommendation and makes the formal appointment.

If the government clears his name, Setty will assume charge on August 28, when the incumbent chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara is set to retire after he got a 10-month extension last October. Khara will turn 63, the upper age limit for the position of SBI chairman, on the superannuation day, was at the helm from October 7, 2020.

The FSIB is an autonomous body under the Centre is the head-hunter for the heads of state-owned banks and financial institutions.

As per convention, the chairman is appointed from the four serving managing directors of SBI provided they have at least three years of service left and have been a managing director for at least a year. Therefore, the senior-most MD Alok Kumar Choudhary is not eligible for the interview as he is retiring on June 30 and so the new MD Rana Ashutosh Kumar Singh will join only on June 30. The FSIB has already recommended the name of Singh as the fourth managing director.