NSE seeks applications for new chief amid suspected governance lapses

The exchange has invited applications from candidates having IPO experience for the role of the top post before March 25

Leading stock exchange NSE, which is facing allegations of governance lapses, has started the hunt for a new managing director and chief executive officer as the five-year tenure of incumbent chief Vikram Limaye is ending in July.

The exchange has invited applications from candidates having IPO (initial public offering) experience for the role of the top post before March 25, according to a public notice issued on Friday.

Limaye is eligible for another term. However, as per Sebi's rule, the incumbent needs to compete with other candidates to win the next term.

He was appointed as the NSE chief in July 2017, following the exit of the exchange's former MD and CEO Chitra Ramkrishna. Among various allegations, issues have been raised in various quarters that why application was not invited at the time when Ramkrishna was appointed as the MD and CEO in 2013.

Limaye is credited with rebranding of the NSE. Trading in derivatives witnessed tremendous growth under his leadership. However, the bourse also suffered an outage last year due to technical glitches.

Listing out eligibility criteria, the NSE's notice stated that the candidate must have a track record of strengthening corporate governance, enterprise risk management and compliance management framework.

In addition, the candidates with exposure to working in a publicly listed company or having led an organisation through an initial public offering process will be an added advantage", it added.

The NSE is planning to come out with its initial share-sale since long. However, the plan to go public derailed after the bourse got embroiled into colocation controversy, where certain brokers were allegedly given unfair access to the exchange data feeds over other members.

After the deadline, the candidates will be short-listed by the nominations and remuneration committee of the company.

A selection committee set up by the NSE, comprising NRC members and the independent external members, will recommend candidates to the board, which will then send the name to Sebi for final approval.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) is facing the regulatory probe in a case of governance lapses and in the colocation matter.

In a recent order, the regulator has penalised NSE's former MDs and CEOs Ramkrishna, Ravi Narain and others for various violations in a case related to the appointment of Anand Subramanian as Group Operating Officer and Advisor to then MD Ramkrishna.

The regulator in its order revealed that Ramkrishna was steered by a yogi dwelling in the Himalayan ranges in the appointment of Subramanian. Also, she was accused of sharing confidential information, including the bourse's financial financial and business plans, dividend scenario, financial results with the yogi and even consulted the yogi over the performance appraisals of the exchange's employees.

The yogi, according to Ramkrishna, was a "spiritual force that could manifest itself anywhere it wanted and did not have any physical or locational coordinates and largely dwelt in the Himalayan range".

Also, the emails exchanged between Yogi and Ramkrishna referred that NSE was planning for a self listing, the order found.