CS Setty is set to succeed Dinesh Khara as the chairman of State Bank of India following a recommendation by the Financial Services Institution Bureau (FSIB) to the Centre on Saturday. Khara’s tenure ends on August 28 this year when he turns 63—SBI’s retirement age.
“FSIB interfaced with three candidates on June 29 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 Challa Sreenivasulu Setty for the position of chairman in SBI,” a statement by FSIB said. The three candidates interviewed for the top job were Setty, Ashwini Tewari and Vinay Tonse— all serving as managing directors at SBI currently.
Setty, who will turn 59 this September, joined the board of SBI as MD in January 2020 and currently leads international banking, global markets and technology wings of the bank. Prior to this, he headed the retail and digital banking verticals. He was also heading various task forces and committees formed by the Government of India.
A bachelor of science in agriculture and a chartered accountant by training, Setty started his career with SBI in 1988 as a probationary officer. Before being appointed as MD in 2020, he held the post of deputy MD, and was in-charge of the stressed assets resolution group. Prior to that he was the chief general manager, corporate accounts group, and deputy general manager in the mid-corporate group.
He was also the vice-president and head of syndications at SBI’s New York branch.
“The MD is cordial, soft-spoken and polite in his dealings with colleagues,” a senior SBI official said, adding, “He has worked across retail, digital, global and corporate banking domains and is extremely knowledgeable.”
In an interview with FE last year, Setty had said that SBI will maintain its 30-32% market share in the UPI space, while engaging with 75-100 fintech players to build an upgraded version of the bank’s flagship Yono app. “Scalability is also important because when you are dealing with SBI , which has 470 million customers, the volumes are very significant,” he had said.
