A bank CEO aspirant, his alleged misconduct and RBI deputy guv’s recommendation

A top official of the Reserve Bank of India had signed off on a decision to recommend Asheesh Pandey as the next chief executive of Indian Bank, even as the central bank reportedly raised concerns against his candidature. RBI deputy governor Rajeshwar Rao was among the signatories to the proposal of recommending Pandey for the post, as per a document accessed by Mint under a Right to Information query. On 24 April 2024, members of the FSIB met to recommend names for certain vacancies in public sector banks, as per minutes of the meeting sent to the finance ministry two days later. Members present in the meeting included Vivek Joshi, then the financial services secretary; Ali Raza Rizvi, then secretary, Department of Public Enterprises; M Rajeshwar Rao, deputy governor, RBI; Animesh Chauhan, former chief executive of Oriental Bank of Commerce; Shailendra Bhandari, former chief of erstwhile ING Vysya Bank Ltd; and Deepak Singhal, former RBI executive director. “While the letter would have gone to the ministry, the FSIB and Rao would not want to bring it up in their meeting with the candidate because those meetings are to assess the candidate’s overall capability," the former RBI official said, adding any other background information is checked at a later stage.