Commercial banker Subhash Sheoratan Mundra has assumed office as the fourth deputy governor of the Reserve Bank today for a three-year term.
When contacted, Mundra, who led the country's second largest lender Bank of Baroda as chairman and managing director, confirmed the development, saying he has taken charge today.
However, an official notification from the Reserve Bank or the government is awaited.
Mundra fills the vacancy created by the retirement of KC Chakrabarty in April, two months before his five-year tenure was come to an end. He was to retire from BoB today following superannuation.
Mundra, 60, takes over as the fourth deputy governor of the central bank after Urjit Patel, HR Khan, and R Gandhi. Of the four deputy governors, one is hired from the banking sector, one an economist (Patel) and two from the RBI itself.
Born in July 1954, Mundra has a Masters degree in commerce from the University of Pune, and is also a certified associate of the Indian Institute of Banking & Finance. He started his career with Bank of Baroda in 1977 as a probationary officer.
Though a search panel headed by Governor Raghuram Rajan interviewed nine state-run bank chiefs, only PNB chairman KR Kamath and Mundra made to the final list for the position when the headhunt began in April after Chakrabarty had quit before term, citing personal commitments.
Others who were in the initial race included Bank of India chief VR Iyer, Uco Bank chief Arun Kaul, Oriental Bank of Commerce's SC Bansal, Indian Bank head TM Bhasin, Dena Bank chief Ashwani Kumar, Indian Overseas Bank's M Narendra and Canara Bank's RK Dubey.
