R H Patil, chairman of Clearing Corporation of India, has been appointed non-executive chairman of National Securities and Depositories Ltd.
Gagan Rai, currently executive director of NSDL, has been promoted as CEO and MD of the depository.
These changes have been made following the appointment of Chairman and Managing Director C B Bhave as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
Patil, who will also continue to be CCIL chairman, founded the National Stock Exchange in 1994. He was earlier executive director of Industrial Development Bank of India.
Speaking to Business Standard, Patil said NSDL will continue to function as it was on Friday and he is not looking at changing the processes.
Apart from capital market functions as depository, NSDL also runs TIN (tax information network), an ambitious project for dematerialising tax certificates.
NSDL has also been assigned the record-keeping work on behalf of the pensions fund regulator. Patil said it is a huge project that demands top priority.
He said NSDL's capacities and the software are being expanded keeping in mind the future requirement.
On the crucial issue of the difference of views between Sebi and NSDL, Patil said he agrees with the stand taken by the depository. "The Act permits depositories to undertake other related activities also," he said.
NSDL has also been fighting a legal battle with Sebi since April 2006 over a scam involving the cornering of new issue share allotments for small investors. In November 2006, Sebi ordered NSDL and a few others to return Rs 115 crore (Rs 1.15 billion) in "illegal profits" from IPO deals.
NSDL appealed to the Securities Appellate Tribunal, which, in December, set aside the Sebi order, describing its action as a clear "violation of the principles of natural justice". The Sebi investigation of the IPO scam isn't concluded yet.
