Former RBI Deputy Governor K C Chakrabarty passes away in Mumbai

Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor Kamalesh Chandra Chakrabarty passed away on Friday morning at his Chembur residence in Mumbai due to a heart attack. He was 69 years old.

Chakrabarty was the deputy governor of the central bank between June 15, 2009 and April 25, 2014 when he left office three months before to his term ended.

Before that, he was a distinguished banker, and served as the Chairman and Managing Director of Punjab National Bank (2007-2009), and CMD of Indian Bank (2005-2007).

He started his career as a banker with the Bank of Baroda where his last assignment was to head the UK operations of the bank between 2001 and 2004.

As a central banker, Chakrabarty was outspoken, and often spoke his mind on critical issues that often differed from the official stance of the RBI.

However, KCC is credited with furthering the financial inclusion drive of the RBI, and was instrumental in bringing down service costs for bank customers. He took initiatives to abolish or drastically reduce many charges that banks used to levy on customers, for example, streamlining the foreclosure charges on home loans and introducing the concept of account portability, where a loan can be seamlessly transferred to another lender.

This brought in a sea-change in the way banking is done in the country and banks became conscious of the welfare of existing customers, instead of attracting new customers only through attractive schemes.

Chakrabarty is survived by his wife and son.