The Reserve Bank of India has obtained board approval for governor Raghuram Rajan's restructuring proposal, which includes among other steps creation of a new post of chief operation officer (COO), as part of the RBI’s reform agenda, according to a news report by The Economic Times, citing a spokesperson of the central bank.
The report added that Rajan is pushing for the new post of COO to rank at par with that of deputy governor, though at the end the COO may be pegged a rank down at the level of an executive director.
At present RBI can have a max of four deputy governors and any change in the organisation structure would need legislative changes.
The COO is expected to be made responsible to work on the reform agenda that includes pushing financial inclusion. One name being put out as a frontrunner for the position is that of Nachiket Mor, who is the former executive director of ICICI Bank who also headed the RBI Committee on financial inclusion.
As part of the proposed restructuring, Rajan also proposed to increase the number of executive directors to 11, from the current nine, and bring down all aspects of RBI central officer departments under five functional departments to be supervised by four deputy governors and the proposed COO.
The five departments are expected to be regulation and banking services; supervision and risk management; monetary stability; financial markets and infrastructure; and operations and human resources. Rajan is said to be keen to adopt a strategy for appointment in the central bank on the lines of peers in the US and the UK.
Meanwhile, The Times of India report suggested that the government has turned down the proposal by RBI as it seeks amendments to the RBI Act to appoint a fifth deputy governor.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
