SBI appoints Charanjit Attra as CFO, rare lateral hire from private sector for C-suite position

The country’s largest public sector lender State Bank of India (SBI) announced the appointment of Charanjit Singh Attra as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Attra, a former Partner at EY India and ICICI Securities senior executive joined the bank on October 1, the bank informed the stock exchanges.

Moneycontrol was the first to report the key move a month back on August 31. This is a rare lateral hire from the private sector by SBI for a C-suite position. In the past, it has relied on its experienced talent pool of top management.

The SBI notification to the stock exchanges read as follows: “Pursuant to the applicable provisions of the 'SEBI (LODR) Regulations 2015 read with Schedule lll Part A(A)(7), we advise that Charanjit Surinder Singh Attra has been appointed as CFO and he has joined the bank today.”

The position of CFO has been vacant since former Deputy MD & CFO Prashant Kumar moved to Yes Bank as part of the RBI’s rescue plan led by SBI. Kumar was replaced in interim capacity by C Venkat Nageshwar. The public sector lender had created a position of Deputy Managing Director (Finance), which is held by J Swaminathan. The incoming CFO will report to Swaminathan, sources added.

Attra , a chartered accountant who specialises in Indian GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles), US GAAP, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations, was previously an ED & Global CFO at IT firm 3i Infotech and CFO and Head – Structured Finance Group at ICICI Securities. He has worked with the ICICI Bank group for more than 12 years in the areas of Investment banking, finance (raising of both equity and debt), commercial and retail banking, financial accounting and operations, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He has been nominated on various committees of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and he also was a special invitee on the National Advisory Committee on Accounting Standards set up in the Ministry of Company Affairs, his profile stated.