Former LIC chairman S B Matthur is likely to take over as the new non-executive chairman of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), largest equity trading bourse in India. According to industry sources, Mathur's name is under consideration by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) after NSE proposed it.
Mathur will take over after economist Vijay kelkar stepped down from the post to avoid conflict of interest as specified by the regulatory norms.
NSE is also likely to propose yet another extension to Ravi Narain -- the 56-year-old managing director, after his term ends next year. Narain's extension may be important for NSE in the wake of up coming competition from the MCX SX group, whose recent roadshow has been well received by domestic stock brokers around the country. Narain has been with NSE since its inception in 1994 and Chitra Ramkrishna, the current joint managing director had joined NSE six months later. Prior to that, both were deputy general managers at IDBI.
Economist Vijay Kelkar had to step down to avoid conflict of interest. New regulatory norms that came into effect a couple of months ago do not allow any board member of banks or broking company to chair a stock exchange in the country. Kelkar is on the board of Mumbai based brokerage firm J M financial as independent director. Kelkar, however, will chair NSE's advisory board.
While former Sebi chairman C B Bhave was not averse in allowing brokers on board of stock exchanges, current chief U K Sinha has expressed his reservations. This is after Bimal Jalan Committee said brokers and bankers should not be given much representation. Sebi had said that exchanges can have a separate advisory committee to take advantage of experience of such members.
