India’s biggest lender appoints Alok Kumar Choudhary as new MD soon after top brass rejig

• Alok Kumar Choudhary was promoted from deputy managing director to Managing Director (MD) of State Bank of India on Tuesday.
• As the MD, Choudhary will be handling retail business and operations in his new role.

Seasoned banker Alok Kumar Choudhary was appointed as the managing director of India’s largest public lending institution State Bank of India on June 07, 2022. He was the Deputy MD (DMD) of finance at the bank.

After three and a half decades with the bank, Choudhary will be now responsible for spearheading retail business and operations at SBI for two years. He will report to the chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara.

This move comes months after the Banks Board Bureau (BBB) recommended Alok Kumar Choudhary for the post of MD in March after interviewing 21 candidates for the position.

He joins three other MDs at SBI Swaminathan Janakiraman, Challa Sreenivasulu Setty, and Ashwini Kumar Tewari.

Choudhary will replace Ashwini Bhatia, who has been appointed a whole-time member of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). Bhatia had joined the bank three years before Choudhary in 1985.

The newly appointed MD began his career at the bank in 1987 as a probationary officer and has held various titles over the years across geographies. He was the chief general manager for three years of the bank’s Delhi circle. He has also held the title of GM in Network I of Ahmedabad, deputy general manager in Delhi, as DGM and corporate development officer at North-East Circle.

This move comes soon after SBI rejigged its top leadership and appointed seven new DMDs. Sankar Bala Bhadrapatruni, Ruma Dey, Amitava Chatterjee, Shamsher Singh, Vidya Krishnan, Gulshan Malik and Pravin Raghavendra were promoted from the position of chief general manager (CGMs) to DMDs at SBI.

The lender has also elevated 29 general managers as CGMs.

New leadership across Public Sector Banks (PSBs)

Along with SBI’s Choudhary, Union Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank and Punjab and Sind Bank shuffled their senior leadership team.

Canara bank’s executive director A Manimekhalai moved to Union Bank of India as MD and CEO. Indian Overseas Bank appointed Ajay Kumar Srivastava took over as MD and CEO.

Punjab and Sind Bank brought Swarup Kumar onboard as MD and CEO.