Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday cleared the appointment of Baldev Prakash as Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Jammu and Kashmir Bank for a period of three years.
A communicant by the RBI said the appointment will be effective from the date of taking charge or April 10, 2022, whichever is earlier.
The appointment of Baldev Prakash as MD and CEO by the Board of the Bank and the actual date of his taking charge shall be communicated separately, RBI said.
Who is Baldev Prakash?
Born on July 8, 1976, Baldev Prakash has worked with the State Bank of India in various capacities, including as Chief General Manager (Digital and Transaction Banking-Marketing) responsible for framing bank-level policy and strategy for developing and providing digital and transaction banking services to all corporate clients of the Bank.
Prakash graduated in MA (History), has a Diploma in Treasury, Investment and Risk Management (IIBF), Diploma in International Banking and Finance (IIBF). He has experience as Regional Manager responsible for over 50 branches, DGM (Business and Operations) responsible for over 200 branches, and General Manager (Network) in Maharashtra Circle responsible for over 400 branches.
He also worked for over four years at Muscat (Sultanate of Oman) responsible for handling the remittances business, including treasury operations.
J&K Bank loan scam
The appointment in J&K Bank comes less than a month after a multi-crore scam was unearthed. Registration of FIR by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Gurugram's Ambience Mall owner Raj Singh Gehlot in a fraud case of over Rs 289 crore has authenticated allegations that hundreds of crores of public money went down the drain with the connivance of some officers of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank Limited with big business houses.
As per reports, along with Gehlot, some officials of J&K Bank have also been put under investigation for allegedly conspiring to defraud public money.
According to the FIR, the CBI found the allegations that the officials of J&K Bank's Ansal Plaza branch in New Delhi had issued loans worth hundreds of crores of rupees in the name of Gehlot's firm, Aman Hospitality Private Limited. Later, with the connivance of the firm and bank officials, the loan amount was declared a Non-Performing Asset (NPA) to facilitate a one-time settlement.
