Mumbai: SBI Life Insurance, the insurance arm of the country's largest lender State Bank of India,said Atanu Sen has taken over as its new managing director and chief executive.

Sen succeeds M N Rao, who retired on August 31.

Sen, who joined SBI in 1977 as a probationary officer, has held posts like chief general manager in the Mumbai circle, deputy managing director, and chief credit and risk officer for the bank, among others, the company said in a statement.

Referring to the growth plans, Sen said, "My mandate will be to focus on impacting a profitable growth and extending the reach of life insurance to the farthest corners of the country, thus driving life insurance penetration."

SBI Life is a joint venture between State Bank of India and BNP Paribas Cardif, in which SBI owns 74 percent

A top RBI official on 27 August snubbed  State bank of India (SBI) chairman Pratip K Chaudhuri for his remarks suggesting abolition of Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR), bluntly telling him that he has to find ‘some other place’ if he could not work as per the central bank’s regulatory environment.

‘If the SBI chairman is not able to do business as per our regulatory environment, he has to find some other place,’ RBI deputy governor K C Chakrabarty said in a sharp reaction to Chaudhuri’s recent comment that CRR does not help anybody and it was unfairly put on banks. Pratip Chaudhuri had last week said, ‘CRR does not help anybody and it is unfairly put on the banks.