The government on Monday appointed Madhabi Puri Buch as the new chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for an initial term of three years.
Buch, who was a wholetime member at Sebi, has many firsts to her credit: She becomes the first woman and first person from a private sector background to head the regulatory body. She is also the first non-IAS Sebi chief since 2002. GN Bajpai, former chairman of Life Insurance Corporation, was the last non-IAS Sebi chairman.
Buch is taking over as the Sebi chief at a time when technology will play a big role in the markets. Among the issues she will need to address are insider trading and market manipulation where the regulator has been focusing for a while now. Market players expect her to continue tightening the rules in these areas. With retail investors now owning an almost 8% of the listed universe, the regulator will have to put guardrails in place so that they don’t fall prey to market manipulation. Impact of digitisation and high-frequency trading could be another area of attention.
Buch was a wholetime member of Sebi till October 2021 and was on the technology committee of the regulator too after she joined back in 2017. She managed areas of surveillance, collective investment schemes and investment management during her tenure.
Further, Buch was also a part of the decision-making in matters like bringing uniformity in the valuation process of corporate bonds, valuing distressed assets and other debt exposures of mutual fund schemes in 2019.
In December 2021, she also headed the Advisory Committee for Leveraging Regulatory and Technology Solutions (ALeRTS) — a committee to detect market anomalies, at Sebi.
Buch is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad and brings along an experience of over three decades in the capital markets and banking sector. She has served as the executive director on the board of ICICI Bank and later became the MD & CEO of ICICI Securities from February 2009 to May 2011. Prior to joining Sebi, she also worked at the Singapore-based Greater Pacific Capital LLP and the New Development Bank in Shanghai.
Buch will succeed Ajay Tyagi, who had a five-year term. Tyagi, a 1984 batch IAS officer of the Himachal Pradesh cadre, was appointed Sebi chairman on March 1, 2017, for a period of three years. Subsequently, he was given a six-month extension and later in August 2020, his tenure was extended by another 18 months.
The finance ministry had invited applications from eligible candidates in October 2021 for the post of Sebi chairperson and the deadline for the submission was December 6.
