Interviews next week for MD & CEO at 5 large PSBs, 26 shortlisted

Will be appointed at Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of India and IDBI Bank

The government's attempt to attract talent from the private sector to head public sector banks (PSBs) hasn't taken off very well, as three-fourths of the 26 called for interview are from the latter.The interviews will be on Monday and Tuesday.

Th government is in the process of appointing a managing director and chief executive officer (MD & CEO) for each of five large PSBs — Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of India and IDBI Bank.

This was the first time the government invited applications from the private sector. Initially, the upper age limit for eligibility was 55 but was later relaxed to 57, due to a lack of applications. After the relaxation a host of candidates, mostly executive directors (EDs) from PSBs, found themselves eligible.

As many as 10 EDs of various PSBs, two EDs and one deputy managing director of IDBI Bank, three chief general managers of State Bank of India, two deputy general managers of PNB, apart from one chairman and managing director (CMD) of a PSB, are in the list of 26 shortlisted (48 had applied) for the interview.

There are no candidates from ICICI or HDFC Bank, the country's largest and second largest private lenders. One from Axis Bank, the third largest private bank, is among the 26.

Similarly, executives of large foreign banks like Citibank or Standard Chartered seem to not be interested in a government bank job. Only one candidate, from Deutsche Bank, has been called for the interview.

The government has set up a search panel headed by Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan for the selection. Those selected will get a fixed term of three years. Some of the top posts in PSBs have been vacant for months. The government is expected to announce the appointments by the end of this month.

After taking charge last year, the new government had cancelled the proposed top appointments of its predecessor, and was open to hiring from the private sector. It also decided to split the CMD post into one of non-executive chairman and another of MD & CEO, and then advertised about the latter recruitment.