Ashishkumar Chauhan takes charge as NSE chief

Ashishkumar Chauhan on Tuesday assumed charge as managing director and chief executive officer of the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

Chauhan earlier resigned as Managing Director and CEO of BSE and was relieved of his roles and responsibilities at the exchange from Monday.

BSE, which has already begun the hunt for a new chief, said an executive management committee of the exchange will be running its affairs till the appointment of the new MD and CEO.

Chauhan replaced Vikram Limaye, whose five-year tenure ended on July 15. Limaye did not seek another tenure at the NSE despite being eligible.

”Chauhan has taken charge as MD and CEO of NSE from today,” a spokesperson of the exchange said. He was part of the founding team of NSE but left it in 2000 for various roles at Reliance Industries group before returning to the stock exchange arena as deputy CEO of BSE in 2009 and then as CEO in 2012.

At NSE, Chauhan faces an uphill task of guiding the bourse bogged down by governance lapses, a co-location scam, technical glitches and a phone-tapping probe. Besides, he will need to steer the long-pending initial public offer of the NSE.

The NSE’s public issue was derailed after the bourse got embroiled in the co-location controversy, where certain brokers were allegedly given unfair access to the exchange data feeds over other members. In a regulatory filing to NSE on Monday, BSE announced that in the interim, its board has decided that an executive management committee of the exchange would be running its affairs till the appointment of new MD and CEO.

The executive management committee comprises Neeraj Kulshrestha – Chief Regulatory Officer, Nayan Mehta – Chief Financial Officer, Kersi Tavadia – Chief Information Officer, Sameer Patil – Chief Business Officer and Girish Joshi – Chief Trading Operations and Listing Sales.

At BSE, Chauhan is credited with reviving its revenues, helping it become the world’s fastest exchange with 6 microseconds response time.

He introduced mobile stock trading to India, diversified in new areas, including currency, commodities and equity derivatives, SMEs, startups, mutual fund and insurance distribution, spot markets and power trading. Also, he is credited for successfully handling the initial share sale of BSE.