The government has filled a key vacancy on the SEBI board with the appointment of Kompella Venkata Ramana Murty as whole-time member (WTM), restoring the regulator’s full strength and setting the stage for a reshuffle of portfolios among senior officials.
Murty replaces Ananth Narayan G, whose tenure ended last year, and will serve a three-year term.
A 1991-batch officer of the Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS), Murty most recently served as Additional Controller General of Defence Accounts under the Ministry of Defence. Over a career spanning more than three decades, he has experience in public financial administration and oversight functions in one of the government’s largest spending departments.
His experience has centred on financial controls, internal audits and compliance frameworks, areas that are increasingly relevant for a regulator tightening supervision of market participants and intermediaries.
Murty is not new to SEBI’s functioning. He earlier served on the SEBI board as a part-time member representing the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, giving him familiarity with regulatory processes and policy-making at the capital markets watchdog.
Other WTMs
With his appointment, SEBI now has its full complement of WTMs, alongside Amarjeet Singh, Kamlesh Chandra Varshney and Sandip Pradhan. WTMs act as functional heads overseeing key verticals such as intermediaries regulation, corporate finance, enforcement, surveillance and investor protection.
Since all major departments are currently allocated among existing members, Murty’s entry is expected to trigger a redistribution of portfolios. Market participants said the Market Intermediaries Regulation and Supervision Department (MIRSD), which oversees brokers, depositories and other market entities, is the most likely to move under him, in line with past practice for new WTMs.
Investor grievance redressal and compliance-oriented functions could also be realigned under his charge, while parts of adjudication or inspection-related work may be carved out depending on internal workload distribution.