Mr KR Kamath has not been given extension though he has not yet completed 60 years of age. This has resulted in lot of speculation among bankers. The comments on FaceBook indicate number of employees are exchanging greetings on his departure. There are speculations as to why this has been done - one view is that the new government will not follow the policy of extensions, whereas the other view is his close proximity with the previous government. Another speculation going around in Bank is that it is on account of his extremely poor performance as CMD of PNB which was ranked as number one PS Bank when he took over as CMD in 2009, and now PNB has slipped to rank of four or so, and has huge NPAs and the worst part is that the morale of the employees at all levels is at the lowest ebb. During his tenure he surpassed many competent senior officers in promotions by introducing the concept of preferring junior officers (preferring those who are to retire beyond 2020), and called it 2020 scheme. Such officers were even openly encouraged to have separate meetings among themselves and called it 2020 Club ! Thus, senior (age wise) officers got antagonized as they have to work under junior officers although they were equally competent but were ignored merely on account of age factor. Younger staff failed to deliver on account of rift generated between such groups. Such open support for officers retiring beyond 2020 proved disaster for the moral of the senior officers and ultimately for the bank. His policy of compulsory transfers across India was another red herring for officers, which he tried to correct during last year of his tenure but failed to enthuse the officers. Good luck to Mr Kamath for his future / retired life (Hopefully he too will join some private sector firm like his predecessor Mr K C Chakrabarty !) and hope the new incumbent will learn the correct lessons based on past mistakes, and will be able to remove the rift and PNB will again achieve the glory which I have seen during my service of being No. 1 in the industry for almost 30 years (from 1980 when we joined till 2011 when I left). The truth for not giving the extension will be known to select few people or it may be out later on. Till that time we, like other bankers can only speculate. 28th October, 2014 : We are writing on this page after long time as for last few months there has been no activity on promotions and appointments of bankers, Today it is a hot topic among top bankers that Mr K R Kamath, CMD of Punjab National Bank has been refused any extension though he still had 13 months of service left. Although some sources indicate that last minute efforts are on for the extension. If he is not given any extension, it will be one of the rare cases where a CMD has been retired before completion of 60 years of age. Bankers are speculating about the reasons for denial of extension. Compiled by Rajesh Goyal
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 16:39:33 +0000
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