India names new heads for four state-owned banks

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India on Wednesday named chief executive officers for four state-owned lenders, as part of plans to reform a sector constrained by a pile of bad loans and lagging private peers in profitability.

R. Koteeswaran was named as managing director and CEO of Indian Overseas Bank , while P. Srinivas will become MD and CEO of United Bank of India , a finance ministry statement said.

Animesh Chauhan was named MD and CEO of Oriental Bank of Commerce , and Kishore Sansi will be MD and CEO of Vijaya Bank .

The appointments come ahead of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's two-day meeting with public sector banks, which account for nearly three quarters of banking assets in India.

The appointments also break with the tradition of having the heads of state-run banks act as both chairman and managing director. The government instead wants to install non-executive chairmen at most public sector lenders.

The government will soon announce a head for Syndicate Bank Ltd , it said, but delayed naming chiefs for three bigger state-owned banks - Bank of Baroda , Punjab National Bank and Canara Bank .

For these three banks, the selection process will start afresh with a view to widen the search for candidates, the statement said.

(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy and Rajesh Kumar Singh; Editing by Sunil Nair)