Surging All The Way

The BSE may have fallen behind in the derivatives race, but under Chauhan, the exchange is looking beyond equities to channelise savings and investments in the country

- Clifford Alvares

THE BSE’S MD & CEO, Ashishkumar Chauhan is busy. As he has been for the past nine years. He has taken on the challenge, and is continuing doing so, of revitalising India’s 143- year old Bombay Stock Exchange. He has had an uphill task. Newer exchanges with new systems and a range of offerings, both old and new, became more attractive to more people. Besides, the BSE had been plagued with controversy when Chauhan took over. It was an arduous task, but Chauhan took on the challenge.

To top it, the exchange sported archaic software systems, sorely requiring a revamp. All the while, rival exchanges were capturing market share. BSE was slow to make new members. In the process, the exchange lost precious market share in equities and transactions. BSE is still trying to recover lost ground in the cash and derivatives market of the business.

Chauhan quickly got into the repair and re-constitute groove. He slashed membership deposit rates from Rs 1 crore to Rs 10 lakh, allowing more admittance from outside the business centre that is Mumbai. He increased the number of members from 650-odd to 1,400+ now. Over the years, Chauhan introduce new segments and platforms such as SME, MFs, and bond distribution.

Building The Exchange

It was an uphill climb for Chauhan as technology revamp was a priority, and he quickly bought it up to speed. The BSE secured a partner in Deutsche Borse, adopted its open source technology systems and rehauled the technology systems of the exchange. “We also changed our clearing settlement, network management, broker software, and every other software without users realising it,” says Chauhan. “The trick was to do it in a way that people didn’t even realise that the technology had been altered,” he adds.