State Bank of India Chairman gets one-year extension

The government extended the term of Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairman, SBI by a year, which will enable her to bring down the bank’s bad loans and help complete the merger process of the bank’s five subsidiaries and Bharatiya Mahila Bank.

Ms. Bhattacharya, 60, was appointed on October 7, 2013, for 3 years. The government has issued a notification extending her tenure.

“I am grateful to the government for giving me some more time to take forward the initiatives that I have taken,” Ms. Bhattacharya said. She had earlier said she wanted to complete the merger process in the current financial year.

The merger of State Banks of Bikaner & Jaipur (SBBJ), Travancore (SBT), Patiala (SBP), Hyderabad (SBH) and Mysore (SBM), and also of the Bhartiya Mahila Bank, a bank for women set up in November 2013, will add Rs.8 lakh crore, or $120 billion, to its assets and will create a banking behemoth with global scale. With this merger, SBI aims to be in the list of top 50 large global banks.

The board of SBI had cleared the merger plan and had finalised the share swap agreement.