Strengthening cross-border finance from regulation to innovation

International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) Executive Director Pradeep Ramakrishnan, brings over 27 years of regulatory and corporate experience to his current role, where he oversees critical areas including capital markets, sustainable finance, commodities and market infrastructure.

- By CHARUMINI DE SILVA

Having previously held key positions at Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), including leading the Departments on Corporate Governance and Sustainable Finance, Ramakrishnan is known for his forward-looking regulatory approach.

He visited Sri Lanka as part of the delegation for the event ‘Credit and Capital: Building Trust through Ratings and Regulations’, co-hosted by IFSCA, NSE IX, CareEdge Global and other Indian and Sri Lankan institutional partners. The event aimed to deepen bilateral cooperation and promote robust financial ecosystems through transparent credit rating frameworks and investor-friendly regulatory environments.

In this exclusive interview with the Daily FT, Ramakrishnan shares insights on the evolving dynamics of capital and commodities markets, the importance of fair credit rating systems in emerging economies, investor appetite trends and the future of regulation in an interconnected world. Below are excerpts of the interview;

You’ve had a long and multi-faceted career, from company Secretary roles to key regulatory positions at SEBI and now at IFSCA. What have been some of the pivotal moments that shaped your approach to market regulation and governance?

Let me start by going back to when I qualified as a Company Secretary, which was around the year 2000. I worked with a listed company and once you're in a listed entity, you naturally begin engaging with a host of compliance requirements. Back then, we didn’t have the SEBI regulations. Instead, compliance was governed through the listing agreement. Whenever the regulator needed to bring in new rules, they would be incorporated into that agreement—that was how the system operated.