slice Adds SBI And ICICI Veterans After RBI Approval
Inc42 reported that slice Small Finance Bank appointed Samir Sawhney and Ramesh Kumar to its board, adding banking, treasury and digital-platform experience after its merger with North East Small Finance Bank.
The Reserve Bank of India approved Samir Sawhney as executive director of slice Small Finance Bank, Inc42 reported, as the recently renamed lender adds senior banking and technology experience to a board shaped by its move out of fintech-startup status.
Samir Sawhney, a former State Bank of India chief general manager, has joined as executive director.
Ramesh Kumar, a former ICICI Bank senior executive, has joined as an independent director, with the bank's board clearing both appointments and the RBI clearing Sawhney's executive-director role.
Sawhney's career spans treasury, investment management, retail operations, marketing and human resources.
His most recent role was chief executive of RMBS Development Company, a National Housing Bank-backed entity focused on India's residential mortgage-backed securities market.
His SBI tenure gives slice direct board experience in large-scale market operations.
As chief general manager of global markets, he headed treasury operations, managed a domestic portfolio exceeding ₹16.5 lakh crore and oversaw foreign assets of more than $10 billion.
He also chaired the Foreign Exchange Dealers' Association of India, a forum that represents banks in foreign-exchange engagement with the RBI.
Kumar adds the technology and operating-resilience side of the governance stack.
His banking technology career included core-platform work at SBI before two decades at ICICI Bank, where his remit covered technology strategy, infrastructure, software development and mobile and digital banking platforms.
The appointment also reconnects Kumar with slice's own transition into a bank.
His advisory work covered slice's integration and merger with North East Small Finance Bank, a deal completed in October 2024.
The February 2025 rebrand then put the combined operation under the slice Small Finance Bank name.
Rajan Bajaj, slice's managing director and CEO, linked the board additions to the bank's effort to build institutional credibility while keeping customer technology central to its operating model.
The board expansion follows the RBI's approval of Bajaj as managing director and CEO about six months earlier. slice began in 2016 as a fintech startup offering consumer payments and credit products, then pivoted after RBI restrictions barred non-bank finance companies from loading credit lines onto prepaid payment instruments.
The operating record now sits alongside the governance reset. slice posted profit after tax of ₹50.9 crore in the June quarter of FY27, compared with a net loss of ₹10.1 crore a year earlier, while total income rose 38.6% to ₹413.8 crore from ₹298.6 crore in Q1 FY26.
Before the merger, the company had raised about $380 million and entered the unicorn club in 2021 after a $220 million Series B round.
