Banks Board Bureau gets 2 more members

Shubhalaxmi Panse and Pradip Shah have been inducted into the board

The government has expanded the Banks Board Bureau (BBB) headed by former comptroller and auditor general Vinod Rai by adding two more members.

Former Allahabad Bank chairperson and managing director Shubhalaxmi Panse and private equity player Pradip Shah have been inducted into the board as independent members, a senior finance ministry official said.

The appointment of two additional members to the BBB will strengthen the panel, the official added.

The body is responsible for selection of managing directors and directors of public sector banks and financial institutions. At times, pre-occupation of some of the members results in postponement or delay in the selection process. Expansion of the Bureau will eliminate delays in holding of interviews for filling up key positions in public sector banks, the official said, adding that with the induction, the quorum would be maintained in case a member cannot report at the time of interview due to some unforeseen event.

Members to the Bureau from the government and the central bank side are secretary, Department of Financial Services; secretary, Department of Public Enterprises; RBI Deputy Governor N S Vishwanathan. Former chairman and managing director of Bank of Baroda A K Khandelwal, former Joint MD H N Sinor and former CRISIL MD Roopa Kudva are independent members.

It is to be noted that recently one of the members, Sinor, had resigned from the Bureau, but a few days later, he withdrew his resignation. “Sinor has decided to re-engage with the activities of the Bureau, with his usual fervour and vigour,” the BBB said in a statement last week.

The former Joint Managing Director of ICICI Bank, according to sources, had resigned as member of the BBB within days of sudden changes in the top management of two large public sector banks — Punjab National Bank and Bank of India. He was unhappy as the BBB was completely bypassed when the heads of the two banks were shifted to smaller banks. 

“In what he perceived as inadequate progress that the recommendations of the Bureau were making, and the resulting despondency, he had offered to withdraw his engagement with the Bureau,” the BBB had said. 

The BBB, set up in April 2016, was originally tasked to recommend names for chiefs of public sector banks and financial institutions and help state-owned lenders in developing strategies and capital-raising plans.