Govt clears ex-StanChart banker Ananth Narayan as Sebi's whole-time member

Ananth Narayan has been appointed for an initial period of three years

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) will soon have a fourth whole-time member (WTM) as the government cleared the appointment of Ananth Narayan Gopalkrishnan, Associate Professor, SP Jain Institute of Management & Research.

The market regulator has been operating with at least one vacancy for the position of WTM since November 2021. Like in the case of most WTMs, Narayan has been appointed for an initial period of three years.

He will join Sebi WTMs SK Mohanty, Ashwani Bhatia and Ananta Barua. Bhatia, previously the managing director of state-owned State Bank of India (SBI), assumed charge at Sebi in June; his appointment was cleared in March.

The market regulator would now have two bankers as WTMs. Prior to joining SP Jain, Narayan was the Regional Head of Financial Markets for ASEAN and South Asia at Standard Chartered Bank. He has strong expertise in foreign currency, interest rates, derivatives and debt capital markets. Narayan has also worked with Deutsche Bank and Citibank.

Sebi chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch, too, is an ex-banker. She has served as an executive director at ICICI Bank and also headed the lender’s broking and investment banking arm ICICI Securities.

Market observers say Narayan’s experience and domain knowledge can be used for the development of the corporate bond market -- a key focus area for Sebi -- and for strengthening the foreign portfolio investor (FPI) regime.

Sebi plays a vital role in monitoring and development of India’s financial market ecosystem. Sebi oversees all listed companies, public fund raising and portfolio flows into the country. It regulates all the capital market intermediaries, such as stock exchanges, brokerages, mutual funds and depositories. The regulator has been tasked with handling new areas, such as commodity futures market, social stock exchanges and alternative investment funds.