Former State Bank of India (SBI) deputy managing director and chief credit officer Natarajan Sundar has been appointed as managing director and chief executive of the National Asset Reconstruction Company (NARCL).

Sundar, who retired on 30 April and was an SBI employee for 37 years, has taken charge of the bad bank from 30 May. 

“After his name was recommended for the position by NARCL board, the fit and proper approval was granted by the sectoral regulator, RBI on 24 May 2022. The previous incumbent, Mr. Padmakumar Nair, who was on a secondment basis from SBI, has since been repatriated to the parent bank,” SBI said in a statement on Tuesday.

NARCL has appointed another former SBI employee, Karnam Sekar, who also headed Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) till 30 June 2020, as its non-executive chairman of the bad bank. 

Malvika Sinha, who retired as executive director of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has also joined the NARCL board as an independent director. 

Besides these three new appointees, the NARCL board has five nominee directors from shareholder banks. One more independent director is expected to join the board shortly. “With this, the board will have its full complement of nine directors,” SBI said.

Fifteen Indian banks hold stakes in NARCL, with Canara Bank acting as the sponsor bank. 

Sundar, who has experience in corporate banking policies and products, was selected through a competitive selection process. He was interviewed in April by a panel consisting of senior bankers from both public and private sector. 

Prior to IOB, Sekar was the head of Dena Bank from September 2018 until its merger in April 2019. Like Sundar, he was also a deputy managing director and the chief credit officer of SBI before he moved to erstwhile Dena Bank.

The bad bank has already missed its 31 March deadline to acquire the first tranche of Rs 50,000 crore of stressed assets from 15 accounts because of procedural delays.