Chiefs of Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India and Bank of Baroda, on Tuesday appeared before the search committee for interviews for the post of Reserve Bank of India?s deputy governor, which was left vacant in December 2008 after the retirement of V Leeladhar. Reserve Bank of India governor, Duvvuri Subbarao, and finance secretary, Arun Ramanathan, among other members of the panel, interviewed Punjab National Bank (PNB) chairman and managing director (CMD) KC Chakrabarty, Union Bank of India (UBI) CMD MV Nair and Bank of Baroda (BoB) chief MD Mallya.
?Chakrabarty, Mallya and Nair had come for interviews for the post of deputy governor of RBI,? people familiar with the development said. The interviews took place at the regional office of RBI in New Delhi.
The Centre had earlier considered seven bankers?State Bank of India?s OP Bhatt, IDBI Bank?s Yogesh Agarwal, Bank of India?s TS Narayanasami, Canara Bank?s AC Mahajan, PNB?s Chakrabarty, BoB?s Mallya, and UBI?s Nair?for the post of RBI deputy governor. However, Chakrabarty, Nair, Mallya and Bhatt did not give their consent for such an appointment. This left the other three as the only contenders for the post.
The committee had interviewed Narayanasami, Agarwal and Mahajan on February 3, but a day later the panel called the chiefs of PNB, BoB and Union Bank of India, asking them to appear for interviews. It is not immediately known what prompted the three to come for interviews, considering that earlier, they had opted out of the process of appointment. The main reason for bankers to show disinterest in the post might have been the three-year term of the deputy governor.
Considering that a bank chairman has to be 60 years old in order to retire, Chakrabarty, Mallya and Nair have about four years each to retire and may lose at least one year if they choose to replace Leeladhar now. If the three stay away for now, they could still become the RBI deputy governor after three years as they would be less than 60 years of age, while a deputy governor retires at 62. Bhatt has more than two years in office, while Narayanasami, Agarwal and Mahajan have less than two years for their retirement.
PNB is the second bank where Chakrabarty is working as CMD. Between 2005 and 2007, he was the chairman of Indian Bank. Mallya was the CMD of Bank of Maharashtra before his stint at BoB in May 2008. Nair became the chief of Dena Bank in 2005 before moving to UBI in the first half of 2006. All the other contenders have had experiences as chairmen of other banks.
Besides Subbarao and Ramanathan, secretary in the department of personnel and training Rahul Sareen, SBI?s former chairman Janki Ballabh and the bank?s former managing director Vepa Kamesam are also the members of the search committee. RBI has four deputy governor posts and Leeladhar was in-charge of the central bank?s banking operations and the supervision division, an important segment in the current meltdown of financial entities across the world.