MCX Stock Exchange appoints Saurabh Sarkar as new CEO and MD

MCX Stock Exchange (MCX-SX), the country's newest full-fledged bourse, has announced the appointment of Saurabh Sarkar as its new CEO and Managing Director, following approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

In a statement on Sunday evening, MCX-SX said that Sarkar has "taken over the reins of the exchange" and he "comes with an experience of over 18 years".

Sarkar, previously MD and CEO of United Stock Exchange of India, has also worked with global financial services giants like Credit Agricole, Standard Chartered and Calyon, and ANZ Grindlays Bank in the past.

Welcoming Sarkar's appointment, MCX-SX Chairman GK Pillai said: "Since the last few months, our focus has been to ring-fence the Exchange and protect interest of investors and members. Having successfully achieved this task appointment of a professional CEO was the next logical step to put the Exchange on firm ground."

Sarkar said that his focus would be on ensuring overall growth of the Exchange by reinstating confidence and trust among members, attracting participation from institutional investors, making MCX-SX the preferred destination for listing of shares and eventually in the process, creating a healthy balance sheet.

"The starting point is to improve participation and volumes, and this is very much possible to achieve, given our strong fundamentals," he added.

MCX-SX, set up by crisis-hit NSEL promoters, last month announced plans for fresh capital infusion by its existing shareholders among measures to boost business.

Earlier in October, Joseph Massey had resigned as CEO of MCX-SX amid a major payment crisis at the National Spot Exchange (NSEL), both of which have been promoted by Jignesh Shah-led Financial Technologies group.

While renewing MCX-SX's licence in September, market regulator Sebi had ordered setting up of an expert panel for taking all key business decisions at the exchange in the wake of NSEL crisis.

Subsequently, Massey resigned amid wide-ranging changes in top leadership teams and boards of various ventures of the Financial Technologies group.

In November, Pillai and Thomas Mathew T were appointed the Chairman and Vice-Chairman, respectively. Pillai was former Union Home Secretary, and Mathew retired as Current-in-Charge Chairman of Life Insurance Corporation of India.

Other members of the Board include Public Interest Directors - Ashima Goyal, Professor at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research; and DR Dogra, MD & CEO of Credit Analysis and Research Limited. U Venkataraman is CEO - Debt Segment & Whole-time Director (Shareholder Director) at MCX-SX.