After nearly five months of wait, market regulator SEBI approved the name of Sundararaman R, 62 years, as the new MD and CEO of the BSE to replace Ashish Chauhan.
For Sundararaman, it will be a second stint at a stock exchange since he worked with National Stock Exchange (NSE) for nearly 20 years, since its inception up to October 2014, under the then longer serving bosses Ravi Narain and Chitra Ramkrishna.
“When Ashish left NSE sometime around 2002, Sundararaman was largely given his portfolio and role to handle. This time again, he is back at BSE to replace Ashish. Sundaraman is meticulous. He was one of the few key people behind the success story of Bank Nifty. But mind it, he is not pleased easily and is a tough task master,” said a senior regulatory official.
Bank Nifty is the most widely traded index on the NSE after the benchmark Nifty index. Product development has been Sundararaman’s forte. A key reason for his appointment at BSE is that the exchange may also get a product that can attract wider market participation.
From 2014 and now, Sundararaman was working at the Bank of America Merill Lynch where he was handpicked by Kaku Nakhate. Sundararaman retired in 2020 and was given extension for two years.
Sundararaman was also from IDBI Bank, where the NSE’s founding chairman and two of the longest serving chiefs and various other officials also served.