Finance Ministry looks to bring major changes at Banks Board Bureau

The finance ministry, over the next couple of months, is planning to identify new members, restructure the bureau, and recommend new names to the appointments committee of the cabinet

The Ministry of Finance is planning to bring more representatives from the insurance sector into the Banks Board Bureau (BBB), in a bid to expand and relaunch the body, a news report in Mint said. With this move, the ministry aims to empower the body to recommend people for public sector insurers and fasten hiring at the top level of state-owned financial institutions.

The union finance ministry, over the next couple of months, is planning to identify new members, restructure the bureau, and recommend new names to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), Mint reported quoting people aware of the matter. 

The restructured BBB, which will have a remit over a wider set of financial institutions, may also get a new name, the report said. 

After revamp, the board will be able to recommend full-time appointments at financial institutions, where currently the executives are given additional roles through interim arrangements. 

The move to revamp BBB comes after a Delhi High Court bench last year pushed the same, saying that the body was not competent enough to recommend appointments to select general managers and directors at PSU general insurers. 

There is also a case pending in the Delhi HC, where a PSU insurer executive has challenged the appointment of the chairman and managing director of United India Insurance selected by BBB. Amid these issues, appointments by the BBB have been suspended. 

The BBB is now practically non-functional as the body's part-time chairman BP Sharma and other members' extended-term came to an end in April.

Now, the finance ministry is looking not only to expand the body but to rename it and give it a fresh mandate for appointments, according to the report in Mint.

The Banks Board Bureau was set up in 2016 by the government with the aim to select executive directors and managing directors and chief executives of PSBs and financial institutions. The board has been recommending appointments for directors, chairpersons, and MDs for PSU general insurers firms since 2018.