MUMBAI, Feb 8: Fiscal 1999 is set to become a year of retirements for the financial sector. If one takes into account the number of high-profile executives calling it a day next financial year, one may tempt to say the entire financial sector will go on superannuation! The list of high-profile executives who will call it quits include Industrial Development Bank of India chairman SH Khan, State Bank of India chief MS Verma, LIC chairman G Krishnamurthy and GIC chairman KC Mittal.Then, there are chief of Bank of India and managing directors of State Bank of India and LIC who will also hang up their boots. Bank of India chairman MG Bhide set the ball rolling seeking premature retirement ten months ahead of schedule. Bhide put in his papers in January and sought to be relieved of his responsibility on April 30 on "personal ground".
While Bhide is calling it a day ten months ahead of his scheduled retirement, others are set to step down and opt for superannuation in the normal course. Khan of IDBI willretire in June while SBI chairman Verma will step down in November after being at the helm of affairs for about two years.
The entire insurance sector will be virtually headless in the next few months. Both chiefs of LIC and GIC -- G Krishnamurthy, K C Mittal -- will call it a day in June. Even before the chairman retires, the LIC managing director RN Tripathy will step down in April. The second MD's post has been lying vacant over a year now.
To make matter worse for the LIC, 11 of its 22 executive directors will go for superannuation by December this year. Among the GIC subsidiaries, all the four general managers of New India Insurance will hang up their boots by the end of the calender year.
The post of the chairman-cum-managing director of Oriental Insurance has been lying vacant since MV Purohit retired last month.
The worst sufferer, it seems, will be the State Bank of India which will lose his chairman, both the managing directors and six of his deputy managing directors in a span of 11 months-- between April 1998 and February next year.
The procession of outgoing executives will be led by K Govindan, DMD, international banking, who will step down in April, followed by VK Merhotra, DMD (audit and inspection) in July '98, SN Sawaikar, DMD, (associate banks and subsidiaries) in August '98, OP Sethia, managing director and group head, national banking, in October '98, AR Barwe, MD, SBI Caps, in October '98, BM Bhide, DMD (chief development officer), in November '98, MP Radhakrishnan, MD and group head, corporate accounts group, in January '99, PK Bhattacharjee, DMD (chief financial officer) in January '99.
In State Bank, two DMDs are in the race for the chairman's post. They are GG Vaidya and V Janakiraman. Vaidya is currently the MD of State Bank of Travancore and Janakirman DMD and chief credit officer in SBI.
The aspirants for the IDBI chairman's post are too many. Internally, two executive directors PV Narasimham and PS Subramanyam are likely to fight it out while former executive directorGP Gupta--who took over the reigns in Unit Trust of India last year--is believed to be keen on coming back to IDBI.
Two more names are being mentioned as likely candidates for the coveted top slot in IDBI -- HDFC chairman Deepak Parikh and Union Bank of India CMD AT Pannir Selvam.
For the chairmanship of the GIC, D Sengupta, CMD, New India Assurance and AN Poddar, CMD, Natioanl Insurance are the contenders. Sengupta has an edge over Poddar as he has almost six more years to retire.
At the moment, a number of public sector banks do not have executive directors. All the four Mumbai-based PSU banks--Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Central Bank and Dena Bank--have not had their EDs. BoB ED Krishnamurty has recently taken over as the chief of Manipal-based Syndicate Bank while BoI's acting executive director stepped down this month.
Central Bank's former executive director KC Chaudhary has come back as the chairman of the bank after a short stint at Bangalore as Vijaya Bank chief while Dena Bank's ED DalbirSingh took over Delhi-based Oriental Bank of Commerce last year. Since then the post has been lying vacant in Dena.
Two other PSU banks which do not have EDs at present are Indian Bank and Andhra Bank. Indian Bank's former ED R S Hugar took over as chairman of Mangalore-based Corporation Bank last year.
The finance ministry has finalised the list of eight EDs who will fill in the vacant posts. Bank of India has the maximum representation in the list.
Three BoI general managers are set to take over EDs in three PSU banks. They are PS Shenoy, J Diwanji and Ranjana Kumar. The list also features executive from Bank of Baroda, Union Bank, United Bank of India and State Bank of Travancore.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
