Market regulator SEBI has approved the appointment of Saurabh Sarkar as the new MD and CEO of MCX-SX.
Sarkar, who now heads the United Stock Exchange (USE), is likely to take charge in February.
According to people close to the development, Sarkar’s immediate priority will be to focus on restoring the trust and credibility of the exchange following the NSEL imbroglio, inject capital, and bring down the rising cost that is skewing the balance-sheet of the exchange. For the quarter ended September 30, the exchange reported a loss of Rs 55 crore against a loss of Rs 4 crore in the year-ago period.
The appointment of Sarkar comes at a crucial time for MCX-SX, which is seeing a churn in the top management, with the promoter Jigneesh Shah and Joseph Massey stepping down from the board in the wake of the Rs 5,600-crore NSEL payment crisis.
For Sarkar, the appointment means a wider canvas as MCX-SX deals with equity, currency and debt; at the USE, he has been handling only the currency trade segment.
With over 18 years of experience in the financial services industry, most of them spent at Standard Chartered Bank followed by a stint at the USE, Sarkar’s name was handpicked by the MCX-SX board and approved by SEBI to step in at a challenging time when concerns over ring-fencing MCS-SX from the NSEL scam have gained centrestage.