Following a long-standing tradition and a recent restart of banking industry professionals joining law firms, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) has added another senior former State Bank of India (SBI) manager to its roster.

Former managing director of State Bank of India (SBI), B Sriram, has joined CAM in Mumbai as a senior advisor.

According to CAM, Sriram had previously headed up SBI for around four years and had also been managing director and CEO of IDBI Bank, and managing director of State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur.

Only last month AZB & Partners had announced the joining of more recent SBI managing director Arijit Basu as a senior consultant (just as CAM had announced the joining of lawyer and banker Arjun Goswami from the Asian Development Bank as public policy head).

According to CAM, Sriram:

[...] has held Board positions in various financial subsidiaries of SBI including SBI Life Insurance, SBI General Insurance, SBI DFHI, SBI Global Factors, SBICap Securities and SBI Cards & Payment Services. He was also a Nominee Director representing State Bank of India on the Boards of invested companies. Mr. Sriram led the Integrated Treasury of SBI from March 2008 to September 2011. He headed SBI’s largest Retail Circle in Delhi from October 2011 to February 2013. During 1997-2001, he was posted to SBI’s foreign office in Singapore with responsibility for Information Technology. From 1992 to 1997 he was responsible for Corporate Finance, Syndications and Project Appraisal at SBI Capital Markets, Mumbai.

CAM managing partner Cyril Shroff said in a press release: “The firm has very strong professional relationships with banks, financial institutions (both domestic and international) and financial investors. His presence will strengthen our offerings and further enhance our capabilities to support our financial institution clients.”

Sriram added that he hoped to “contribute and boost” CAM’s “capabilities to support its financial institution clients”.

As we had previously pointed out, firms and in particular AZB and CAM, have liked hiring from government banks:

• in 2018 AZB hired ex-SBI chairwoman Arundhati Bhattacharya as a senior consultant in a part-time role, and
• in 2015 AZB hired RBI executive director G Padmanabhan,
• CAM hired ex-SBI senior Pradeep Kumar Bagga joined Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas in 2015,
• erstwhile Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai had hired ex-Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor Anand Sinha in 2014, and
• ex-SEBI chief UK Sinha in 2018.