BANK OF MAHARASHTRA: AN INDIAN SMALL PUBLIC SECTOR BANK UNSHACKLING ITSELF FROM THE BAGGAGE OF THE PAST

It was on summer evening in Pune in April 2022. The temperature in Pune had touched 40°C and Mr. A S Rajeev, the Managing Director, and the CEO of Bank of Maharashtra, a small/medium-sized Indian public sector bank, were having a cup of tea in his office before leaving the office. He had just declared the Q4 results of 2021-22 (i.e., January – March 2022) of Bank of Maharashtra when the net profit jumped by 115 per cent (from Rs. 1.65 billion to Rs. 3.55 billion). In a contemplating mood, he was thinking that the Bank has come a long way from his taking over the mantle of Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) in December 2018, when the image of the Bank got tarnished with allegations of governance issues and non-performing assets (a euphemism for loan default) looming large.

As he had started recapitulating this transformative journey of BoM in a pensive mood, various scenes of the history of banking in India started appearing as a montage in his mind’s eyes...