NEW DELHI: The government today reconstituted the Banks Board Bureau, appointing former DoPT Secretary Bhanu Pratap Sharma as the chairman, replacing Vinod Rai.
The BBB's term under Rai ended on March 31 and the new board has been set up at a time when the banking sector is grappling with mounting bad loans and frauds.
The other members of the reconstituted BBB are: Vedika Bhandarkar (former MD Credit Suisse India), P Pradeep Kumar (former MD SBI) and Pradip P Shah (founder MD Crisil).
The board under Sharma will have a two year tenure.
He was serving as the chairman of Recruitment and Assessment Centre at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar said the reconstituted BBB will have the same mandate as was given to the previous one which was led by Rai.
The restructured BBB will "take forward" all the HR related recommendation of the previous board, he said.
In a tweet while announcing the constitution of BBB, Kumar said: "Government renews commitment to not interfere in senior level appointments in PSBs (public sector banks).
" He said all the members of the reconstituted BBB have "diverse experience".
Sharma was chosen by the government as he has "wide experience on Human Resource issues", and has served as Secretary Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016 approved the constitution of BBB as a body of eminent professionals and officials to make recommendations for the appointment of whole-time directors as well as non-executive chairmen of PSBs.
They were also given the task of engaging with the Board of Directors of all the public sector banks to formulate appropriate strategies for their growth and development.
"The Bureau will recommend for selection of heads - Public Sector Banks and Financial Institutions and help Banks in developing strategies and capital raising plans," states the 2016 mandate of the BBB.
Days before his two year term came to an end, Rai, a former CAG, had expressed displeasure over lack of communication between the BBB and the finance ministry.
He had said that most of the BBB's recommendations have not received due attention from the government and it has been merely working as an appointment board since inception.
The BBB had also sought wider mandate from the government including advising the government on consolidation of PSBs in the least disruptive manner.
Rai later dismissed the reports of lack of coordination between the BBB and the government saying that the rapport was "total" and he often met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and received guidance from him.
In a 60-page report titled 'Compendium of recommendations' posted on BBB website in March, Rai gave a status update on the work done by the Bureau since 2016.