India names new bosses for seven state-run banks

Reuters: India named new chief executives for seven state-run banks on Friday, at a time when regulators are trying to clean up record bad loans in the sector.

The new appointments coincide with the government’s efforts to try to tackle the banking industry’s $150 billion of bad loans, the bulk of which is on the books of state-run banks.

The banks which will have new bosses include the second-largest state lender, Punjab National Bank, and Indian Overseas Bank, the lender with highest ratio of bad loans.

Sunil Mehta will take over as the managing director and chief executive officer of Punjab National Bank, while R. Subramaniakumar will become the MD and CEO of Indian Overseas Bank, according to a government statement.

The government typically selects bank bosses from the ranks of state-run lenders. Mehta is currently an executive director at state-run Corporation Bank, while Subramaniakumar is an executive director at Indian Overseas Bank.

Indian Overseas Bank, which had gross non-performing loans at 22.4 percent of total loans as of December, has the highest bad-loan ratio in the sector. The bank has been without a full-time CEO for nearly a year after its last chief retired in June 2016.

Usha Ananthasubramanian, currently CEO of Punjab National Bank, will move to become the CEO of smaller Allahabad Bank, while Melwyn Rego, the CEO of Bank of India has been named as the chief of smaller Syndicate Bank.

The government did not cite any reason for the changes.

Dinabandhu Mohapatra was named the CEO of Bank of India, while Rajkiran Rai G will head Union Bank of India on or after July 1.

The current chiefs of Union Bank and Syndicate Bank retire in the coming months.

R.A. Sankara Narayanan has been named as the CEO of Vijaya Bank from September.