Madhavi Puri Buch

Former top-level executive in private sector is the first woman to head SEBI

At a time when the markets regulator is in the spotlight in the wake of its order on governance lapses at the country’s largest stock exchange, the National Stock Exchange, the Appointments Committee of the Union Cabinet, on Monday, named former banker and securities market executive Madhabi Puri Buch as the new chairperson of the Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

Ms. Buch becomes not only the first woman to head SEBI in the more than 30 years since its founding, but also the first former private-sector top-level executive to head the markets regulator.

The IIM-Ahmedabad alumna, who took the helm at SEBI on March 2, is however, not a complete outsider to the regulator, having spent more than four years — between April 2017 and October 2021 — as a whole-time member. During that stint, she oversaw a broad range of portfolios that stretched from the regulation and surveillance of markets and market intermediaries to economic and policy analysis, and at the National Institute of Securities Markets and Information Technology.

It is this combination of the deep insight and hands-on experience gleaned from the three decades Ms. Buch spent working in various capacities in the private financial sector and securities industry and the more contemporary appreciation of the regulator’s perspective that could stand her in good stead as SEBI grapples with the new-age regulatory challenges .

“Given her wealth of experience in the capital markets and financial services space, she understands the pulse of the markets and knows what the market regulator’s focus ought to be,” said Sankar Chakraborti, Group CEO, Acuité Ratings and Research.

“As one who was on SEBI’s committee on technology, her appointment can indeed give a further boost to India’s digital transformation. And now that the sustainability scenario in India is going through a paradigm shift, her agility to make things happen and receptivity to new ideas could help investor protection, corporate governance and disclosures,” he added.

Appointed for a tenure of three years, Ms. Buch will have her task cut out on multiple fronts.