Sudha Balakrishnan appointed first CFO of RBI

The CFO, the RBI had said, will also formulate the accounting policy of the bank, maintain the internal accounts and report financial results, and carry out corporate strategy functions like PF policies. Other responsibilities include overseeing the budget process, collecting of inputs and comparing the Bank’s actual performance vis-à-vis the budget estimates, flagging risks to the finances — operational, market etc. And developing strategies to counter/ mitigate the same. CFO will have oversight of three departments.

The CFO will also be entrusted with communicating the RBI’s expected and actual financial performance. Till now, the RBI did not have a dedicated official handling the finance function, and the tasks were being carried out internally. RBI Governor Urjit Patel’s predecessor Raghuram Rajan had pursued an idea of creating a chief operating officer but the government shot down the proposal as it involved changing the RBI Act. Rajan had also hired a slew of specialists from outside.