Arundhati Bhattacharya is named chairperson of the country’s largest public sector bank, State Bank of India (SBI). She will replace Pratip Chaudhuri, who ran the office when almost all public sector banks saw the nightmare of rising bad loans.
Being the first woman to take over the charge of SBI, Bhattacharya would run the bank for a period of three years and prior to that. Previously, she was managing director and chief financial officer at SBI.
Bhattacharya also worked as MD & CEO of SBI Capital Markets Ltd. In her earlier roles, she was deputy managing director and corporate development officer of SBI.
She joined the bank in 1977 and since then has held various assignments spanning credit, forex, treasury and retail operations. She has also had a stint in the bank’s New York office where she was in charge of monitoring branch performance, overseeing external audit and correspondent relations.
According to the bank, she has had the opportunity of working in metro, urban and rural areas across the country. She has handled large corporate credit as well as initiatives like financial inclusion and financing of self help groups.
She was involved in setting up several new companies/initiatives of the bank, including SBI General Insurance, SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Fund and SBI SG Global Securities Services, as well as the launch of IT platforms such as mobile banking and financial planning for the bank.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
