Govt clears ex-Standard Chartered banker as Sebi whole-time member

The appointment is for three years for a position vacant since November 2021

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) will soon have a fourth whole-time member (WTM), with the government clearing the appointment of Ananth Narayan Gopalakrishnan, an associate professor at SP Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR).

The Department of Personnel and Training issued a circular making the announcement, which read: “He will hold office for a period of three years from the date he assumes charge or until further orders, whichever is earlier.”

With this appointment, Gopalakrishnan becomes the fourth WTM of Sebi, which had been operating with a vacancy for the position since November 2021.

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

Sebi will now have two bankers as WTMs. Prior to joining SPJIMR, Gopalakrishnan was MD and regional head of financial markets for Association of Southeast Asian Nations and South Asia at Standard Chartered Bank. He has more than two decades of experience in banking and financial markets, with stints at Citibank and Deutsche Bank. He has strong expertise in foreign currency, interest rates, derivatives, and debt capital markets.

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

Apart from being an associate professor at SP Jain, Gopalakrishnan is senior India analyst at the observatory group and is a public interest director for the NSE IFSC Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT-City) and for the National Securities Clearing Corporation.

He serves as an independent director on the boards of SBI Capital Markets, Clearcorp Dealing Systems (India), Bharat FIH, CARE Ratings, Agappe Diagnostics, and Southern Ridges Capital.

He has also served as Reserve Bank of India-nominated additional director at YES Bank.

He has served on various regulatory panels such as Sebi’s Mutual Fund (MF) Advisory Committee, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry’s Capital Markets Committee, NSE Clearing’s Risk Management Committee, and Kerala Infrastructure Fund Management’s Investment Committee.

Market observers say Gopalakrishnan’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 regime.

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