Sudha Balakrishnan appointed 1st RBI CFO

NSDL Vice-President Sudha Balakrishnan has been appointed as the first chief financial officer (CFO) of the Reserve Bank, as part of the organisational change brought in by Governor Urjit Patel, banking sources said.

Balakrishnan, a chartered accountant, will hold the rank of executive director.

While inviting applications for the newly created post in May last year, RBI had said that the CFO will be responsible for reporting of financial information of the central bank, establishing accounting policies and ensuring compliance with regulations.

The CFO, it had said, will also be entrusted with communicating RBIs expected and actual financial performance and overseeing its budget processes.

Till now, the central bank did not have a dedicated official handling the finance function, and the tasks were being carried out internally.

Patel's predecessor Raghuram Rajan had pursued an idea of creating a chief operating officer for the apex bank but the government shot down the proposal as it involved changing the RBI Act. Rajan had also hired a slew of specialists from outside.