The government has appointed MK Jain as the deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India, filling a position which has been vacant since August 2017.
Jain has been the managing director and chief executive officer of IDBI Bank Ltd. since April 2017. A career banker, Jain has previously served as the CEO of Indian Bank. Since his move to IDBI Bank, Jain has been focused on cleaning up the bank's balance sheet and has moved to divest several non-core assets to help release capital. Jain has also been involved in risk management efforts at an industry level and has been a member of the Indian Banks' Association committee on risk management.
Govt. appoints experienced banker Mahesh Kumar Jain , MD & CEO of #IDBI Bank as Dy. Governor, #RBI for a term of three years . @PMOIndia @FinMinIndia @PIB_INDIA pic.twitter.com/2qzmtOOJ5G
The post of deputy governor fell empty after SS Mundra retired at the end of July 2017. Mundra, a career banker, had been looking after the banking regulation division and had been instrumental in initiating a clean-up of bank balance sheets in 2015.
Post Mundra's retirement, the government put out an open advertisement seeking applications for the position. Departing from tradition of appointing a career public sector banker to the post, the government chose to look at a wider set of candidates. In the first advertisement put out by the RBI it said that applicants should have the following qualifications:
- 15 years of experience in banking and financial market operations.
- Understanding of supervision and compliance in the financial sector.
- An appreciation, as a practitioner, of the role of banks in large corporate lending, in an environment with strong bond markets.
- Understanding of bankruptcy/restructuring/turn-around/credit models.
A first round of interviews held after Mundra retired did not lead to a final appointment and a second round of interviews was held.
According to a PTI report dated May 10, nine candidates were called for interviews in the second round. This included:
- MK Jain, Managing Director, IDBI Bank
- Charan Singh, Executive Director, UCO Bank
- SBI managing directors B Sriram and PK Gupta
- KP Krishnan, Secretary of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
- Yaduvendra Mathur, Additional Secretary, NITI Aayog
- TV Somanathan, Principal Secretary, Tamil Nadu government
Essential Business Intelligence, Continuous LIVE TV, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
