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BENGALURU, July 18 (Reuters) – Indian group CARE Ratings Ltd has left general manager Rajesh Mokashi on leave until further notice, the company said on Wednesday night, making it the second-largest rating agency to do so. facing regulatory concerns.
Earlier this month, ICRA Ltd, the Indian unit of Moody's Investors Service, put its executive director, Naresh Takkar, on leave after SEBI had sent anonymous concerns to the company.
CARE said that Mokashi would be on leave until the company had considered an anonymous complaint against him at the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
The agency has named T.N. Arun Kumar, currently Executive Director of Notations, as interim CEO.
"It (Kumar) will not be part of the rating operations to ensure the independence of the ratings," said CARE in an information exchange.
CARE did not respond to an email asking for additional comments, while Mokashi declined to comment.
The ICRA rating agency announced last May having commissioned external experts to investigate the anonymous complaint regarding the credit rating badigned to one of its clients and its units.
The media reported previously that the complaint about CIFAR concerned an interference by the rating company's management in awarding top-quality ratings to Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd. (IL & C). FS) and its subsidiaries last year. Reuters could not confirm these accusations independently.
The government removed the management of IL & FS and took control of the company after the infrastructure finance provider defaulted on a series of debts.
In addition to the ICRA, India Ratings & Research, which is owned by Fitch Ratings and CARE Ratings, also gave IL & FS ratings to indicate the highest solvency levels.
The series of defaults has raised fears of contagion in the financial sector and has frightened investors in both equity and debt markets over the last few years.
Shares of CARE Ratings fell 5.8% on Thursday, before recovering slightly to trade 4.9% to 869.85 rupees at 05.13 GMT. (Report of Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru, additional report of Abhirup Roy in Mumbai, edited by Subhranshu Sahu and Gopakumar Warrier)
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