Centre yet to implement reforms, public sector banks remain headless

Centre yet to implement reforms, public sector banks remain headless

Over ten months after the government conducted a banking conclave ‘Gyan Sangam’ to chalk out its strategy for public sector banks in early 2015 in Pune, the situation has hardly shown any improvement in terms of governance and performance with the government yet to implement many of the reforms announced earlier.

Four public sector banks :-

• Indian Bank, 
• UCO Bank, 
• Andhra Bank and 
• Bharatiya Mahila Bank .

are functioning without a CEO and MD. Over half a dozen banks, including Oriental Bank of Commerce and Punjab National Bank are without a non-executive chairman. More than ten executive director posts are lying vacant in various PSU banks. Bank of Baroda, which is in the spotlight for an alleged Rs 3,500 crore illegal remittances fraud, got its full-time MD and CEO — PS Jayakumar — on October 13 after nearly 14 months. The appointment of MD for Life Insurance Corporation is also pending and the post of member (non-life) for insurance regulator IRDA is also lying vacant.

The PJ Nayak Committee on ‘Governance of Boards of Banks in India’ submitted its report on reforms in public sector banks 16 months ago. In August 2015, the government announced MDs for five PSU banks and a seven-point framework called ‘Indradhanush’ that included setting up a Bank Board Bureau (BBB) and a holding company.

Source:Bankingupdates