Viral Acharya named new RBI deputy governor for three years

The government on Wednesday announced the appointment of Viral Acharya as a deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has cleared the appointment for three years. The RBI had a vacancy for deputy governor after Urjit Patel was promoted to Governor earlier this year. He is taking over at a time when the central bank is facing criticism for repeated changes in the rules related to deposit and withdrawal of money, post demonetisation. However, there is no clarity yet on which portfolio Acharya would be assigned. In an interview with The Economic Times in 2013, Viral also spoke about being a co-author with former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan in a paper on sovereign bonds. [caption id=“attachment_3177966” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Viral Acharya, RBI Deputy Governor. Image courtesy - NYU-Stern[/caption] An alumnus of IIT, Mumbai, with a degree of Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering in 1995 and PhD in Finance from NYU-Stern in 2001, Acharya was with London Business School (2001-08) and served as the Academic Director of the Coller Institute of Private Equity at LBS (2007-09) and a Senior Houblon-Normal Research Fellow at the Bank of England (Summer 2008). Acharya is known for his research in theoretical and empirical analysis of systemic risks of the financial sector, its regulation and genesis in government-induced distortions, according to the profile on the NYU website. Acharya is also the C V Starr Professor of Economics in the Department of Finance at the New York University Stern School of Business (NYU-Stern). Acharya also received several awards for his research work. In 2010, he received the Best Paper Award in Corporate Finance from the Journal of Financial Economics and in 2003 f0r Best Paper Award in Equity Trading at the Western Finance Association Meetings. Besides, this the 42-year old has also been a member of advisory scientific committee of European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB), economic advisory committee of the Financial Industry Regulation Authority (FINRA), advisory committee of Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC) of India, International Advisory Board of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, or Sebi, the Mint report said. Lending his support for a bad bank, Acharya in an interview with Bloomberg Quint said India needs to stop the bad loan wound from festering further. “I am absolutely proposing, either explicitly or implicitly, that we separate the unhealthy parts of the troubled banks from the healthy parts,” Acharya said in the interview. He also said the passage of the GST Bill in the parliament is a big positive to the world, but turned cautious by citing global headwinds as a serious challenge to growth.