New Delhi, Dec 31 (IANS): The union finance ministry Wednesday named chief executive officers for four public sector banks (PSBs), breaking with the tradition of having the heads of state-run banks act as both chairman and managing director (CMD).

"In a significant departure from the past practice, the Government of India has decided to now separate the post of chairman and MD and CEO (chief executive officer)", the ministry said in a release announcing the appointments.

R. Koteeswaran was named managing director and CEO of Indian Overseas Bank, while P. Srinivas will become the MD and CEO of United Bank of India.

In the other appointments, Animesh Chauhan was named MD and CEO of Oriental Bank of Commerce, and Kishore Sansi the MD and CEO of Vijaya Bank.

The government henceforth wants to install non-executive chairmen at most PSBs.

It will soon announce a head for Syndicate Bank but delayed naming chiefs for three other banks - Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank and Canara Bank.

For these three banks, the selection process will start anew so as to widen the search for candidates, the ministry statement said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet bankers Jan 3 during the concluding session of their "retreat" in Pune where they will prepare an action plan for reforms in the PSBs.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley along with Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan, senior officials of the ministry and heads of PSBs will be attending the retreat called "Gyan Sangam" scheduled for Jan 3.

"The final objective would be to prepare a blue print of reform action plan. The outline of the reform action plan would be presented to the prime minister Jan 3 at the retreat. Then, further deliberations will take place on this in the presence of the prime minister," an official statement said.

Earlier this month, the government decided to permit public sector banks to raise up to Rs.160,000 crore from capital markets by diluting government holding to 52 percent in phases so as to meet Basel III capital adequacy norms.