Vishwanathan appointed RBI Deputy Governor

N S Vishwanathan is set to become new deputy governor of the Reserve Bank, replacing of H R Khan whose term will end next week. Vishwanathan has been an Executive Director at Reserve Bank of India since April 2014. Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has cleared his elevation as Deputy Governor, sources said.

The notification on this is expected soon, they said. As per the RBI Act, the central bank has to have four deputy governors.

Vishwanathan was earlier Principal Chief General Manager in the Department of non-banking supervision at Reserve Bank of India.

He has also served as Chief General Manager of Vigilance at IFCI Ltd, Delhi-based government owned finance company.

The central bank has four deputy governors two from within the ranks (the other being R Gandhi) and one commercial banker (S S Mundra) and an economist to head the monetary policy department (Urjit Patel, who was given a three-year extension in January after his first three-year term).

Khan, who was promoted from within the ranks, was appointed as a deputy governor in July 2011, and reappointed in 2014 for two more years.

Khan is in-charge of the financial markets, internal debt management departments, foreign management among others at the central bank.