Six of the 11 public sector banks in India do not have a non-executive chairman, Business Standard has reported. Some of these posts have been vacant for over two years.
Public sector banks are government owned and in them, a majority stake is held by the Union or state finance ministries.
The banks which do not have anyone in the non-executive chairman’s position are UCO Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Indian Bank, and Central Bank of India.
Of these, the UCO Bank and Bank of Maharashtra have never had a part-time chairman since 2015 and 2016 respectively.In 2015, the government approved the proposal to separate the posts of chairman and managing directors.
The chairman would be the non-executive arm and be responsible for policy decisions, and the managing director would manage the bank on a daily basis.Indian Bank has not had a chairman since 2018.
Indian Overseas Bank and Bank of India have had the post vacant since 2020. Central Bank of India has had no one in the non-executive chairman’s post since 2021.While some banks have three to four executive directors, there are not many independent directors.