Pallav Mohapatra

Pallav Mohapatra is a veteran Indian banker with nearly four decades of experience, the bulk of it within the State Bank of India (SBI) group, which he joined as a Probationary Officer in 1983. Over his SBI career he held a wide range of senior roles, including Vice President (Credit & Forex) at SBI's California (Los Angeles/Artesia) operations, Chief General Manager of the New Delhi circle (one of SBI's largest), and Deputy Managing Director of the Stressed Assets Management Group — the unit responsible for recovering and resolving the bank's bad loans. He also led SBI's card business as CEO (and earlier CFO) of SBI Cards & Payment Services Ltd and served as Managing Director of SBI Custodial Services Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai.

In September 2018 he was appointed Managing Director & CEO of Central Bank of India, a large public-sector bank that was then under the Reserve Bank of India's Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework. He is widely credited with helping turn around the bank by tackling its large stressed-asset portfolio and driving modernization and recovery initiatives. He completed his term and demitted office in late February 2021.

In March 2021, Mohapatra was appointed Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director of Arcil (Asset Reconstruction Company (India) Ltd), India's first and one of its largest asset reconstruction companies. The government waived the mandatory one-year cooling-off period to enable the appointment, given his deep stressed-asset expertise. At Arcil he is responsible for the firm's strategic direction and growth, with an emphasis on modernization, data analytics, and workforce development in the distressed-debt business.

Academically, Mohapatra holds a bachelor's degree in Arts from Lucknow University and a postgraduate qualification in Statistics from Utkal University. He is a Certified Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers (CAIIB).

• Not a startup/angel investor. His professional focus is the acquisition and resolution of distressed and non-performing loan assets, not equity investment in early-stage companies.
• Through Arcil, the "investment" activity is the purchase of stressed corporate and retail debt portfolios from banks and NBFCs, followed by restructuring, recovery, and resolution.
• Long-standing specialization in stressed-asset management dating to his time leading SBI's Stressed Assets Management Group and steering Central Bank of India out of RBI's PCA framework.
• In a 2024 Business Today interview he flagged that the ARC sector may see consolidation going ahead, reflecting his industry-level view of distressed-debt resolution in India.