Karnataka Bank appoints Srikrishnan Hari Hara Sarma as MD & CEO

Private sector Karnataka Bank on Friday announced the appointment of former Jio Payments Bank head Srikrishnan Hari Hara Sarma as Managing Director and CEO.

Pursuant to the approval received from the Reserve Bank of India, the Board of Directors at its meeting held on Thursday has appointed Sarma as an additional director to take up the role of MD and CEO, Karnataka Bank said in a regulatory filing.

The appointment is subject to approval of shareholders at the ensuing Annual General Meeting or within a period of 3 months from the date of assuming charge whichever is earlier, it said.

With this appointment, there would be 11 directors on the board of the bank, it said.

Of which, 8 are independent directors constituting 73 per cent of the board, including one woman independent director, it said.

Sarma has nearly four decades of experience spread across commercial, retail and transactional banking, technology and payments.

At HDFC Bank Limited, he was part of the founding management team, for over 9 years, and as the country head – Transactional Banking and Operations, was involved in setting up the bank’s corporate and retail banking, treasury and capital markets infrastructure business.

He later joined Yes Bank.

At Jio Payments Bank, as MD and CEO, he was responsible for application and coordination for approval of license with the RBI, incorporation of the company, formation of the board, strategic direction, and commencement of operations in 2018.