The newly-constituted Banks Board Bureau (BBB) will conduct interviews for the posts of executive directors on June 16-17. The interviews will be held in Mumbai to fill 16 Executive Director vacancies in various public sector banks (PSBs). As many as 49 GMs are in the fray for the ED selection process. Last month, the Bureau completed the selection process for managing directors in three public sector banks - Indian Overseas Bank, United Bank of India and Bank of Maharashtra. After the interview on May 16, BBB short-listed three candidates for the post of managing director at these three banks, it is learnt. At some of the bigger PSBs, the posts of second or third executive director currently remain vacant. BBB, which started functioning on April 1, has been set up to improve governance in PSBs. BBB Chairman Vinod Rai had in mid-April said that selection of senior management personnel to fill in existing and upcoming vacancies will be an immediate priority for the Bureau. While the Bureau is now focussed on the selection of senior management personnel, it may, in the coming days, look at helping banks devise strategies with respect to consolidation and raising capital. The key difference this time round is that the RBI Governor will have no role in the selection process of senior management personnel in banks, as recommendations of the BBB will go to the government, which will then take the final call. Prior to the BBB, the government had, while overhauling the selection process (after the Syndicate Bank chairman episode), constituted three screening committees of two members each, comprising an RBI Deputy Governor, Financial Services Secretary, and four experts. The recommendations of the committees were then processed by an appointments board headed by the RBI Governor.