State Bank of India (SBI) chairman Dinesh Khara has reshuffled the top deck even as Alok Kumar Choudhary has stepped in as the fourth managing director to replace Ashwani Bhatia.

Choudhary, who was deputy managing director at the bank, will now be in charge of retail business and operations. He will remain as MD until his retirement on 30 June 2024.

Challa Sreenivasulu Setty, who was MD for retail and digital banking, will now handle international banking, global markets and technology. This was a role earlier handled by Ashwini Kumar Tewari, along with subsidiaries.

Tewari moves to a new role as MD of risk, compliance, audit and stressed assets resolution group (SARG). This function was with Swaminathan Janakiraman.

Janakiraman will now be MD of corporate banking and subsidiaries.

SBI’s fourth MD was vacant after Bhatia retired on 31 May 2022. He has taken over as wholetime director at stock market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

Before being elevated to the position of MD, Choudhary was Deputy Managing Director (Finance) at the bank. Beginning his career with SBI in 1987 as a probationary officer, he has been associated with SBI for three and a half decades. 

The digital banking department, earlier under retail banking, is with Nitin Chugh, a lateral entrant into the bank. As deputy managing director, he is head of digital banking. He was earlier with HDFC Bank as head of digital banking before he moved to Ujjivan Small Finance Bank as CEO.