Madhabi Puri Buch takes charge as SEBI Chairperson

In a move that was rather surprising, yet expected, Madhabi Puri Buch was appointed the chairperson of SEBI for a period of 3 years. She takes charge of the new role on 02nd March. One of the most respected financial industry veterans, Madhabi Puri Buch, needs no introduction. Over the last 5 years, she has been a whole time member of SEBI handling the crucial portfolios of surveillance and mutual funds.

Madhabi is the first woman to head SEBI and only the second non-bureaucrat other than GN Bajpai to be at the helm of SEBI. Ajay Tyagi demitted office on 28th February. He was originally appointed in 2017 for a period of 3 years and then given an extension of 2 years. He was supposed to get another extension, but apparently that did not happen. The first thing Madhabi will have to do is to clean up the image of going soft on the NSE algo scam.

In the last 5 years that Madhabi Puri Buch was the whole-time member of SEBI, she oversaw market infrastructure institutions such as stock exchanges and depositories. In addition, she also had the responsibility to oversee investment management assets such as mutual funds, alternative investment funds and portfolio management schemes. In addition, she also has handled market surveillance, apart from all her other responsibilities.

Madhabi may not be a bureaucrat or a career SEBI official. However, she has a rich experience in the financial sector with special focus and having deep understanding of treasury, banking, security markets, compliances, process etc. Earlier, Madhabi was the executive director at ICICI Bank and CEO of ICICI Securities and spent more than 20 years in the ICICI group in various roles till the year 2011, when she left the ICICI group. 

Madhabi takes charge at a time when the global markets have been roiled by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. On her immediate agenda will be ensuring that the Life Insurance Corp of India IPO goes through smoothly and SEBI has been virtually setting up a complete dedicated ecosystem . The sale is set to be the country's biggest primary market fundraising and the stakes are very high and SEBI has a critical role to play on the process part.

Madhabi Puri Buch is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and St. Stevens Delhi. Post ICICI group, she also worked with the New Development Bank in Shanghai and also with the Greater Pacific Capital group in Singapore. The general image that Madhabi has in professional circles is of a thorough professional and a tough-as-nuts leader of people. A lot of these qualities will come abundantly into play in her new role at SEBI.