Bank of Baroda’s change of guard poses a test

The public sector lender cannot afford to take its eye off ICICI Bank, which threatens to dislodge it as India’s third largest bank.

On 14 January, Sanjiv Chadha was given an extension at the helm of Bank of Baroda. His three-year term as the CEO and managing director, which was to end on 19 January, will now get over on 25 June, when he attains superannuation. The same day, in a separate order, the Financial Services Institutions Bureau—the agency tasked with finding people to head public sector banks—recommended the name of the bank’s current executive director, Debadatta Chand, as Chadha’s successor.

This means that Chadha will hand-hold Chand through the next six months. The extended leadership transition could be good for the bank …

Author

Furquan Moharkan

Furquan leads the banking coverage at The Morning Context. A business journalist with eight years of experience and a best-selling author, in his earlier stints as a reporter with the Deccan Herald and a columnist at The Banker, he wrote on banking, financial markets and regulatory affairs. He has extensively covered India's debt market crisis, banking crisis and the fall of Yes Bank.

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furquan@mailtmc.com

Delhi