Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has appointed veteran banker KV Kamath as non-executive chairman of its financial services arm, it said in a stock exchange filing on Friday.
Kamath will also join the board of Reliance Industries as an independent director for five years.
In October, Reliance Industries announced the separation of its financial services business.
It said Reliance Strategic Investments, its wholly-owned subsidiary, would be closed before listing on exchanges as Jio Financial Services Ltd.
The company said that Kamath will continue to run the company as non-executive chairman post the demerger and listing. Reliance Industries is trying to capitalize on the untapped opportunities in the financial services space, especially for the retail and small-business product categories.
Jio Financial Services (JFS) will leverage Reliance’s technology capabilities to offer digital products.
JFS plans to launch a consumer and merchant lending business based on proprietary data analytics to complement and complement traditional credit bureau-based underwriting.
Reliance Industries had said in October that it would continue to evaluate inorganic opportunities in the insurance, asset management and digital broking segments along with organic growth, joint venture partnerships.
Jio Financial Services will also be joined by an experienced management team and adopt best-in-class governance and risk management practices.
Kamat, a trained mechanical engineer and an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management- Ahmedabad, began his career at ICICI in 1971.
In 1988, he moved to the Asian Development Bank and spent years in Southeast Asia before returning to ICICI as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.
After the merger with ICICI Bank, Kamath became the Managing Director and Chief Executive of ICICI Bank.
Under his leadership, ICICI grew into a diversified, technology-driven financial services conglomerate in banking, insurance and asset management in India, apart from expanding its global presence.
After retiring as Managing Director in 2009, he remained the Chairman till 2015.
He also served as the chairman of Infosys.
In 2015 he was appointed as the first chairman of the New Development Bank set up by the BRICS countries, and retired in 2020.
Currently, he is the chairman of the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID).
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