N S Vishwanathan appointed RBI Deputy Governor

N S Vishwanathan was appointed Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, replacing H R Khan who will retire next week.

Vishwanathan, currently Executive Director at the central bank, was chosen by a search committee headed by Cabinet Secretary. This is the first appointment done through this high-level panel.

"The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved the appointment of N S Vishwanathan Executive Director, RBI as Deputy Governor RBI vice H R Khan for a period of 3 years," a government notification said.

He will replace Khan, who will superannuate on July 3 on turning 62.

All appointments of Deputy Governors to RBI were previously done by a panel headed by RBI Governor. But for the first time, a Deputy Governor's appointment has been made through recommendations of the Financial Sector Regulatory Appointment Search Committee headed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha. This panel included RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan.

Rajan, who incidentally himself has said no to a second term after his current three-year tenure ends on September 4, had headed a search panel for appointment of Deputy Governors as early as this January that gave 3-year extension to Urjit Patel.

Government is currently in process of selecting Rajan's successor and officials have said that the name could be announced by next month.

Khan, who is in-charge of the financial markets, internal debt management departments, foreign management among others at the central bank, was appointed as a Deputy Governor in July 2011 and was re-appointed in 2014 for two more years.

The central bank has four deputy governors - two from within the ranks (the other being R Gandhi), one commercial banker (S S Mundra) and an economist Urjit Patel who heads the monetary policy department.

Before becoming Executive Director in April 2014, Vishwanathan was Principal Chief General Manager in the Department of non-banking supervision at the Reserve Bank.

He has also served as Chief General Manager of Vigilance at IFCI Ltd, a Delhi-based government-owned finance company.

Executive directors, 11 in all, are the third rung in the RBI hierarchy.