Joining the league of female bankers, Arundhati Bhattacharya, the youngest Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of State Bank of India (SBI) has been appointed by the Government as the first woman Chairperson of the country’s largest state-owned lender.
Bhattacharya, 57, who succeeds Pratip Chaudhuri, who retired on September 30, has joined the ranks of other female bank heads like Naina lal Kidwai of HSBC India, Chanda Kochhar of ICICI Bank and Shikha Sharma of Axis Bank.
She also joins the club of other state-owned banks like Allahabad Bank and Bank of India which have women chairpersons namely Shubhalakshmi Panse and V R Iyer respectively.
The Government announced the appointment of Bhattacharya on Monday, who has had a varied experience in SBI in different departments, for a period of three years. This is the first time that an SBI head will get a three-year tenure, irrespective of when the person will retire.
An SBI statement said Bhattacharya assumed charge as Chairperson on Monday itself.
She pipped SBI Managing Directors Hemant G Contractor, A Krishna Kumar and S Vishvanathan to the top post.
Bhattacharya joined the bank in 1977 as a probationary officer. She has served in various positions, including as head of SBI Capital Markets ltd, the investment banking unit.
Prior to this, she served as a deputy managing director and corporate development officer at SBI. She has undertaken various assignments spanning credit, foreign exchange, treasury and retail operations.
Besides, Bhattacharya had a brief stint at SBI’s office in New York.
Bhattacharya’s name was finalised for the SBI top job by a search panel comprising Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Takru and Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor Anand Sinha last month.