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NSE Chief Vikram Limaye To Focus On Market Development, New Products And Geographies: Exclusive

Vikram Limaye on his new role as NSE MD & CEO in an exclusive chat with BloombergQuint. 



Vikram Limaye. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)
Vikram Limaye. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)

The National Stock Exchange’s newly appointed Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Vikram Limaye, said he will focus on market development, new products and geographies in his new role.

Limaye, currently the managing director and chief executive officer of infrastructure financing company IDFC, has been selected as the next chief of NSE by the exchange’s board of directors. The appointment comes two months after the sudden departure of Chitra Ramkrishna, the former MD and CEO.

In a phone interview with BloombergQuint, his first since the appointment was announced, Limaye spoke, briefly, about the growth opportunities for India’s largest stock exchange.

NSE is an institution of national importance. It is already a leader in its space but there will be opportunity to expand its business footprint through new products and geographies.
Vikram Limaye, MD & CEO-Designate, NSE

While he said it was too early to elaborate on specific plans, he did offer a comment on the more important task of market development.

I believe going forward market development is critical for funding India’s growth. And future growth cannot be funded only via banks, especially after new RBI regulations limiting banks’ exposure to corporates. Therefore, it is an important part of NSE’s mandate to develop markets and hence an important part of my role as well.
Vikram Limaye, MD & CEO-Designate, NSE


NSE’s media statement says the exchange’s board of directors met on February 3 and decided “to appoint Vikram Limaye as MD and CEO of NSE, subject to approval of shareholders and SEBI, for a period of five years. His appointment will be effective from the date Mr Limaye assumes office”.


Among Limaye’s top priorities will be steering the exchange through it’s initial public offer, the prospectus for which has been filed but the process put on hold during the search for a new leader.

He will also have to resolve the ongoing regulatory issue stemming from accusations that the exchange gave preferential treatment to certain brokerages on the matter of co-location of servers in order to facilitate high-speed trading. Limaye acknowledged that in his interview.

I will work with the regulators and the government to sort out any pending issues between the regulators and NSE.
Vikram Limaye, MD & CEO-Designate, NSE


Limaye’s biography on the IDFC Ltd. website says he’s an MBA in Finance and Multinational Management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He previously worked at Credit Suisse First Boston for eight years, in a variety of roles in investment banking, capital markets, structured finance and credit portfolio management, before returning to Mumbai in 2004.

He has also been appointed as one of the four members of the governing body of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) by the Supreme Court.

Limaye is the first outsider to lead the exchange since it began operations in 1994. His predecessors, Chitra Ramkrishna, Ravi Narain and RH Patil, were all members of the exchange’s founding team.