Vijayalakshmi Iyer takes charge of Bank of India

The government has on Monday appointed Vijayalakshmi Iyer as the chairperson and managing director of Mumbai-based Bank of India.

Iyer — who was an executive director of Central Bank of India prior to this appointment — will serve Bank of India till May 31, 2015.

Iyer, who took charge on Monday, joined the banking sector in 1975 with Union Bank of India and was promoted as executive director (ED) of Central Bank of India in September 2010. As an ED, she was in charge of various portfolios like treasury, financial services, international division, information technology, planning and development, among others.

Iyer will succeed Alok Misra, who retired at the end of August.

While the finance ministry has decided to fill the vacancy in Bank of India, another public sector bank, Canara Bank, is still without a chairman, following S Raman’s retirement in September. Another large public sector bank’s top position will be vacant shortly, after MD Mallya, chairman and managing director of Bank of Baroda, retires at the end of November.

The public sector lender which announced its July-September earnings last week saw its net profit declining by 38.5 per cent on an year-on-year basis to Rs 302 crore due to higher provisioning for bad loans. The bank had registered 20 per cent loan growth while its deposits grew by lower pace, 11.4 per cent. Its net interest margin, however, remained steady at 2.42 per cent on year-on-year basis.