Dinesh Kumar Khara said goodbye to the bank he had headed for four years on Tuesday.
Khara has been Chairman of State Bank of India since October 2020, during a tenure that has seen the bank’s profitability and market perception improve significantly even in an uncertain macroeconomic environment.
The bank’s management held a farewell event in Khara’s honor, people who were present said. The event, which lasted until late in the evening, featured speeches by all four executives and Khara himself.
The outgoing chairman spoke about how India’s largest bank has held up during the Covid-19 pandemic. He praised the bank’s employees for not asking for even a single day’s leave during the pandemic and working tirelessly to stabilise operations even during nationwide lockdowns, the people cited above said.
Khara also pointed out that the bank’s net profit in the last four years was higher than the total profit in the last 60 years. In his speech, the outgoing chairman also urged the bank’s employees to continue the good work they had done during these years, according to the people cited above.
In the last four years, SBI has made a profit after tax of Rs 163 crore. Before Khara’s tenure, the bank’s annual profit in FY2020 was Rs 14,448 crore. Compare that with the first quarter of FY2025, when SBI made a net profit of Rs 17,037 crore.
CS Setty, who was previously managing director of international banking, global markets and technology, will take over as chairman of SBI for a three-year term from Wednesday. Setty, who is also a state banker, also spoke at Khara’s farewell function, where he congratulated his boss and vowed to continue working at the bank, the people present said.
Setty, who as a teenager collected small debts for his father, must not only maintain SBI’s profitability rate but also find ways to improve it. He also takes control of India’s largest lender at a time when technology-related problems are emerging across the industry.
Khara had always maintained that SBI has invested significant resources in improving its IT infrastructure. But this claim will have to be proven in the coming years. In addition, SBI needs to maintain its leadership position in key areas such as housing finance, clean unsecured stock and deposit mobilisation.
