The Centre has resumed the process of looking for a suitable candidate to appoint as the fourth deputy governor at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) — a post which has been lying vacant for almost seven months now.
Deputy Governor S.S. Mundra, who was looking after banking supervision, retired on July 31. Though the Centre had initiated the search for a replacement in May last year, the process appeared to have stalled for unknown reasons.
Fresh advertisement
On Friday, the Finance Ministry issued a fresh newspaper advertisement inviting applications for the central bank deputy governor’s post. The latest move comes in the wake of the ₹11,500-crore fraud at Punjab National Bank, which has thrown the spotlight on internal oversight failures at the state-owned bank and drawn criticism about possible audit and regulatory lapses. The latest advertisement specifies the eligibility criteria for candidates — these include a minimum 15 years of experience in banking and financial sector with an understanding of supervision and compliance. A candidate’s age should not exceed 60 years as on July 31, 2017, the ministry said, adding the criteria could, however, be relaxed for deserving candidates. The tenure of appointment would be three years and could be extended.
Similar to last time, the post is open to candidates from the private sector. Also, the criterion that a candidate must have served as a bank CEO has been dropped. and anyone with board experience is eligible to apply.
Out of the four Deputy Governors, two are promoted from within the RBI and one is an economist. The fourth is typically a commercial banker. In the past, only the CEO of a public sector bank — like Mr. Mundra of Bank of Baroda or his predecessor K.C. Chakrabarty of Punjab National Bank — was selected as Deputy Governor.
Candidates who had applied in response to the earlier advertisement in May would not need to apply afresh. The last date for submitting applications is March 14, 2018. The Financial Sector Regulatory Appointments Search Committee (FSRASC) would shortlist and interview the candidates. However, the FSRASC can recommend a candidate’s name even if he/she had not applied.
The FSRASC “is free to identify and recommend any other person also, based on merit,” the ministry said.
