India Names New CEOs at Punjab National, 6 Other State-Run Banks

(Bloomberg) -- India appointed new chief executive officers at seven state-controlled lenders, including Punjab National Bank and Bank of India.

Sunil Mehta has been appointed managing director and CEO of New Delhi-based Punjab National Bank and Dinabandhu Mohapatra will assume charge as managing director and CEO of Bank of India, according to a statement dated Friday posted on a government website. The appointments were made after a government panel approved proposals from the banking department at the country's finance ministry.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government announced the appointments on the same day it empowered the Reserve Bank of India to clean up as much as $180 billion of soured loans on their balance sheets, which have been choking credit and weighing on growth. State-run banks account for more than 70 percent of the loans in the country's banking system.

Usha Ananthasubramanian has been named the managing director and CEO of Allahabad Bank. The government also appointed new managing directors and CEOs at four other lenders including M.O. Rego at Syndicate Bank, R. Subramaniakumar at Indian Overseas Bank, Rajkiran Rai G at Union Bank of India and R.A. Sankara Narayanan at Vijaya Bank.

To contact the reporter on this story: Anto Antony in Mumbai at aantony1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stanley James at sjames8@bloomberg.net, Subramaniam Sharma, John McCluskey