‘Level-headed’ is how colleagues, current as well as former, describe Arundhati Bhattacharya, who was on Monday appointed as chairperson of State Bank of India.
She joins an increasing number of modern women — ICICI Bank chief Chanda Kochhar, Axis Bank chief Shikha Sharma, Bank of India chief V.R. Iyer, Allahabad Bank chief Subhalakshmi Panse, and HSBC India chief Naina Lal Kidwai — who have made it to the top in the commercial banking space.
Bhattacharya, who is the first woman chief of India’s largest bank, occupies the corner office on the 18th floor of the SBI headquarters here. She takes over at a time when the banking sector faces challenges, such as economic slowdown, rising bad loans and cases of corporate debt restructuring, slow deposit growth vis-à-vis credit growth, growing need to source capital to meet Basel III norms and transition from the old guard to the new.
Bhattacharya will also need to focus on improving SBI’s profitability ratios including return of equity (0.81 per cent in the first quarter of FY14 versus 1.09 per cent in the first quarter of FY13) and return on equity (13.59 per cent versus 18.41 per cent).
Besides, she will have to take a call on effecting the merger of at least one of the five associate banks with the parent, SBI, during her two-and-a-half years at the helm.
SBI insiders say Bhattacharya successfully steered SBI Capital Markets at a time when the financial markets were not doing too well. She is well-versed in the art of negotiations, said a former SBI official.
“Bhattacharya is objective yet sympathetic in dealing with people. She never takes hasty decisions and weighs all options on the table. However, she is quick in decision making,” said the person quoted above.