RBI eyes market for specialised supervision, regulation cadre

Internal supply to still account for 65%

07/08/2019 MUMBAI: : A security guard stands behind a logo of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), at RBI headquarters in Mumbai on August 7, 2019. Photo. Paul Noronha

The Reserve Bank of India has decided to recruit 35% of the specialised supervisory and regulatory cadre from the market while the remaining 65% will be recruited via internal promotions.

In an internal circular, the central bank said that direct recruitment in the Specialized Supervisory and Regulatory Cadre (SSRC) will be at Grade B level.

“Out of the total vacancies in the grade, 35% of the vacancies will be filled up through market recruitment while 65% of vacancies will be filled up through internal promotions,” RBI said.

The Specialized Supervisory and Regulatory Cadre (SSRC) will comprise officers in Grade B to Executive Director level, the circular said.

RBI said in case there was a shortfall in filling up any vacancy in the specialist groups in Research, Data Analysis, Model Development, Stress Testing and the like, then lateral recruitment will be resorted to in respect of such shortfall.

Lateral recruitment will not be resorted to for filling vacancies which carry out onsite supervision of the regulated entities. According to the norms, lateral induction would normally be at Grade C level and on contract basis. Laterally recruited officers will have a tenure of three years, extendable up to a maximum period of five years.

“The shortfall of officers with specialised skills will be filled up by taking expertise on inward deputation or assigning some of the specialised back office jobs to external experts,” it said.

On November 1, 2019, RBI decided to reorganise its regulation and supervision departments. It merged the three regulatory departments (department of banking, non-banking and cooperative bank) into one and did likewise for the three supervisory departments.

As a result, there is only one supervisory department which looks after supervision of banks, NBFCs and cooperative banks and only one regulatory department for these three.

The move was aimed at dealing more effectively with potential systemic risk that could come about due to possible supervisory arbitrage and information asymmetry.