Brickwork Ratings expands board, appoints Santosh Nayar as chairman

The market regulator had ordered Brickwork Ratings to not onboard clients for six months or until these conditions were met.

Nayar has a career spanning over 40 years across sectors including investment, retail, international banking, project finance, and life insurance. Currently, he also serves as the chairman of Reliance Nipppon Life Insurance.

Earlier, Nayar served as the chairman and managing director at India Infrastructure Finance Co. Ltd, where he played a pivotal role in shaping reforms in the infrastructure sector.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India had in September issued an order requiring Brickwork Ratings to onboard more members to its board. The market regulator had directed that the new members either be independent directors or non-executive directors not related or connected to the founding management of Brickwork Ratings.

Sebi had also stated that Brickwork Ratings had to ensure that no more than a quarter of the members of the new board were related or connected to the founders and present management.

The board’s independent directors now include Santosh B. Nayar, M.R. Hegde, S.Sadagopan, T.Y. Prabhu, Chandru Badrinarayanan, and Sudha Ravi.

Earlier in June, the Securities Appellate Tribunal had provided relief to Brickwork, quashing Sebi’s order of winding down the company’s operations. The tribunal had partly affirmed Sebi’s findings of alleged violations, and referred the matter back to the markets regulator to issue a fresh order on the quantum of penalty.

Prior to that, Sebi in its October 2022 order had directed winding down of the operations of Brickwork within six months, citing “failure to exercise proper skill, care and diligence” while discharging duties as credit rating agency”.

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Published: 23 Apr 2024, 07:55 PM IST