Ashishkumar Chauhan, who is currently the MD & CEO of BSE, will soon be taking over as the new head of the National Stock Exchange, which is the country’s largest bourse in terms of market share.
According to people familiar with the development, his appointment has been cleared by the capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and a formal announcement is expected as early as tomorrow.
A statement by NSE said that Sebi has approved Chauhan's name for the post of NSE's MD & CEO and the Governing Board of the bourse has put in place a framework for the interim period.
"An Internal Executive Committee comprising of Mr. Yatrik Vin, Group CFO & Head Corporate Affairs, Ms. Priya Subbaraman, Chief Regulatory Officer, Mr. Somasundaram KS, Chief Enterprise Risk & Information Security Officer and Mr. Shiv Kumar Bhasin, Chief Technology & Operations Officer has been constituted for the purpose of running the affairs of the company," it stated while adding that the "committee will be dissolved upon the new MD & CEO assuming office”.
The term of Chauhan, who has been with BSE since 2009, is scheduled to end in November but he is expected to resign soon after a formal announcement is made.
At NSE, he will succeed Vikram Limaye who joined the exchange as its MD & CEO in 2017 and whose term came to an end on Saturday (July 16). In March, Limaye announced that he is not interested in a second term at the exchange.
“I have informed the board that I am not interested in pursuing a second term and will therefore not be applying and participating in the process that is underway. My tenor ends on July 16, 2022,” he had said.
Interestingly, for Chauhan, joining NSE can be termed homecoming as he was part of the founding team of NSE -- a team that was handpicked by the late R H Patil, the founder of NSE. He was with the NSE from 1993 to 2000.
For Chauhan, the second stint at NSE, however, would be quite interesting, to say the least. The IIT and IIM alumnus will be joining at the helm at a time when the exchange has been marred with a series of controversies.
The co-location matter and the ensuing probe saw some of its former senior-most officials, including MD & CEO Chitra Ramkrishna and her trusted aide Anand Subramanian, who was also the Group Operating Officer, being arrested.
Further, the exchange saw its name dragged in an alleged phone tapping matter in which high-profile names have been involved, including that of its former heads Ramkrishna and her predecessor Ravi Narain.
The exchange, on its part, has been saying that it has plugged all the gaps and strengthened the governance level though there still seems to be a perception that much still needs to be done with the market watchdog also keeping a close watch on the bourse.
This assumes significance as NSE’s plans of going public through an initial public offer (IPO) have been gathering dust with Sebi yet to clear its draft document. The ongoing probes by various enforcement agencies including the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) have only further raised regulatory concerns.
Interestingly, Chauhan, who started his career as a banker with IDBI, could play a key role when he assumes the corner office at NSE as he has prior experience of taking an exchange public -- BSE went public in 2017 -- and is also well versed with the stock and commodity exchange businesses.
NSE, which commenced operations in 1994, was primarily set up since policymakers felt there was a need for a technology-driven bourse at a time when BSE -- Asia’s oldest exchange established in 1875 -- was under strong control of the broker lobby.
Much has changed since then and NSE has outpaced its much older rival by a huge margin -- it commands a near monopoly in the equity derivative arena though the segment has regularly been criticised for encouraging speculation rather than wealth creation.
For Chauhan, who was President and CIO of Reliance Group from 2000 to 2009 and also the CEO of the group’s IPL team Mumbai Indians, there will be a lot on his plate as there is still much work to be done to bring the NSE house in order, especially after the recent string of controversies.