Heads of Exim Bank, IFCI, 2 others to be appointed by mid-July

New Delhi: The government is likely to appoint heads of four public sector financial institutions -- Exim Bank, IFCI, Sidbi and IIFCL -- by the middle of next month.

The finance ministry has already concluded interviews of 32 candidate for the post of managing directors as these FIs and the shortlisted names will soon be sent to Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Sources said the ACC approval should come by mid-July and it is the intention of the government to fill vacancies in these institutions as soon as possible.

The 6-member panel comprising of Financial Services Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training Secretary and other experts had interviewed candidates last week as Banks Board Bureau (BBB) declined to carry out the process of selection for these vacancies citing citing technicalities, sources said.

BBB, set up by the Prime Minister in April last year, was entrusted with the task of finding candidates for the executive heads of state-owned banks and FIs.

Other members of the panel include a Reserve Bank of India deputy governor, former chairperson of Allahabad Bank Shubhalakshmi Panse, IndAsia Chairman Pradip Shah and IIM Indore Director R T Krishnan to select heads of India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd (IIFCL), Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank), Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) and IFCI.

Some of these organisations have been running without full-time managing directors for the past 6 months.

The post of MD at the country's oldest financial institution IFCI has been vacant since December 12, while vacancy for the head of IIFCL will come up in June.

At the same time, Sidbi has no regular managing director since December, while additional charge of MD of EXIM Bank was given to its DMD David Rasquinha for a period of six months effective February 21.

At the same time, government has given additional charge to its of Chairman of IIFCL to its deputy managing director Sanjeev Kaushik, a 1992 batch Kerala cadre IAS officer. He has assumed charge from June 12.

Applications from the eligible candidates were invited on March 20 for IFCI and IIFCL, while last date for Exim Bank was March 15 and for Sidbi it was March 17.