Board of the FSC

Mr Mardayah Kona Yerukunondu was appointed, with effect from the 12^th of May 2020, as Chairperson of the Board of the Financial Services Commission.

He is currently the First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Mauritius. Prior to his appointment as First Deputy Governor, Mr Yerukunondu was the country’s first Ombudsperson for Financial Services.

Mr Yerukunondu is a seasoned central banker. He joined the Bank of Mauritius in 1977 and acquired expertise in critical areas ranging from central bank administration, supervision, regulation, policy and compliance. He has played a pivotal role in the modernization of the country’s banking and financial services framework.

Mr Yerukunondu has been an ardent defender of the image and repute of the Mauritian jurisdiction. He has played a key role as official delegate in several country missions focusing on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism. Mr Yerukunondu has also formed part of national delegations of the ESAAMLG Task Force of Senior Officials.

Mr Yerukunondu has been a speaker in high-level fora including the International Monetary Fund, the Bank for International Settlements, the World Bank Treasury, the European Monetary Union, the Islamic Financial Services Board Summit, RAMP, and in geographies ranging from Europe, America, Asia and Africa.

It is to be noted that Mr Yerukunondu was the Chairperson of the Steering Committee set up by Government to study the social and legal aspects of Islamic Financial Services. He was equally the Chairperson of the Committee set up by the Bank of Mauritius which saw the implementation of the Credit Information Bureau in Mauritius.

Mr Yerukunondu is a sworn barrister. He holds a LLB (Honours) from the University of London as well as qualifications from the Institute of Statisticians. He has written academic papers, namely an article on Islamic Finance published in March 2010 in the chronicle of the Bar Council and a manual on Banking for the Open University.

Mr Rajesh Ramloll, SC joined the Board of the FSC in May 2014 and has been appointed as Vice-Chairperson since 26 April 2019. He is currently the Deputy Solicitor-General at the Attorney-General’s Office. Mr Ramloll is a barrister at Law and holds a specialist LLM in taxation from the Centre for Commercial Studies Queen Mary, London.

He is the current President of the International Fiscal Association, Mauritius Branch.

Mr. Ramloll is a Fellow of the Hon. Society of Advanced Legal Studies (London) and is a member of the International Fiscal Association. He advises the Government on legal aspects of financial matters. He is a tax assessor of the OECD Global Forum and a reviewer of the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (IBFD), (Netherlands).

Mr Mahess Rawoteea has joined the Board as from October 2018. He is Lead Analyst at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development. Currently, he is a member of the National Regulatory Sandbox Licence Committee and the Work Group on the Blue Print for the Financial Services Sector. He is also a co-opted member of the Mauritius Africa Fund Ltd Board of Directors and the Secretary of the National Pensions Fund and National Savings Fund Investment Committee.

Mr. Purmessur holds the position of Permanent Secretary and is presently posted to the National Development Unit. He has a very long career in the civil service, having served nearly 40 years in various Ministries, namely in the Income Tax Department; the Ministry of Housing and Lands; the Ministry of Local Government; the Ministry of Technology, Communication and Innovation; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade; and the Ministry of Financial Services and Good Governance.

Mr. Purmessur holds an MBA in Human Resource Management from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) from India, an MSc IT in Business Information Systems from the Keele University in UK and a Diploma in Public Administration and Management from the University of Mauritius.

Mr. Purmessur has also served on various Boards and Committees, namely, the National Housing Development Company Ltd, the Town and Country Planning Board, the Informatics Park Ltd, the Information and Communication Technology Authority, the Rights Management Society, the Financial Services Fund, the National Productivity and Competitiveness Council, the National Committee on Corporate Governance and the Heritage City Co. Ltd.

He is currently the Chairman of the Land Drainage Authority, the Director of the SBM Holdings Ltd, and a member of the National Environment Fund Committee.

Mr Premchand Mungar is a seasoned professional with extensive expertise across various sectors of the financial services industry. In December 2017, he was appointed as an Independent Non-Executive Member of the FSC’s Board.

Before his recent return to Mauritius, he was the general counsel and a senior director at the African Trade and Development Bank Group (TDB Group), a multinational development financial institution. He was a member of TDB’s executive committees and was retained as a senior advisor to TDB Group.

Mr Mungar is actively involved at the Corporate Governance Development Forum spearheaded by international Development Finance Institutions to develop a framework integrating the principles of governance into investment and business operations. He now acts as a consultant in banking and finance for institutional transformation, corporate strategy and business initiatives.

Mr Mungar holds a master’s degree in finance and financial law from the University of London and an LLB from the University of Mauritius. He is a qualified attorney and a member of the Mauritius Law Society since 1995.

He attended various executive education courses, including the 16th Summer School on International Financial Law, organised by EuroMoney in collaboration with the University of Oxford, at St Catherine’s College. He was also sponsored by Japan Bank for International Cooperation to attend to the 10th Autumn Course on International Finance held jointly with Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan. He holds to his credit several commendations and was awarded the 2016 President’s Excellence Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the affairs of the TDB Group.

Mrs. Yotsna Lalji-Venketasawmy joined to the Board of the FSC in April 2018 and is currently an Adviser on matters relating to Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) at the Ministry of Financial Services and Good Governance. She has extensive regional and international experience in the field of AML/CFT, and has served as a United Nations expert between January 2012 and June 2015.

Prior to 2012, she was the Legal Adviser of the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG), and has led and participated in a number of AML/CFT assessments of countries in Eastern and Southern Africa.

Mrs. Lalji- Venketasawmy has also previously worked for the Financial Services Commission and has over 7 years of experience working in financial services regulations.

Ms Gayle Mary Jane Yerriah has been appointed as member of the FSC since the 26th of April 2019. She is a holder of an LLB (Bachelor in law) from the University of Buckingham in United Kingdom and was called to the Bar in UK in November 2011 and is a member of the Middle Temple Inn UK. She was also called to the Bar in Mauritius in January 2013.  She is an Arbitrator (FCIArb) of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators UK. She has been a member of the board of directors of the Information and Communication Technology Authority.

Mrs Mariam Rajabally has been appointed as Board Member of the FSC since 26 April 2019. She is a Partner at a leading accounting firm specialising in transaction advisory services and corporate finance. She has been involved in a number of large transactions in different sectors. Mrs Rajabally also advises on local and international tax matters. She regularly conducts workshops on a number of topics. She is also currently a Commissioner at the Competition Commission of Mauritius.

Mrs Rajabally holds an LLB from the London School of Economics and Political Science, a Post Graduate Diploma from the University of Oxford and qualified as a Chartered Accountant (ACA) with PricewaterhouseCoopers, London.

Mr Vikash Thakoor is the Chief Executive of the Financial Services Commission, Mauritius (FSC) since 18 May 2020.

He holds a Masters’ Degree in Information Technology, Electronics and Systems Automation from Ecole Universitaire d’Ingénieurs de Lille - France and an MBA with Specialisation in Finance. He has over 25 years of Central Banking experience.

Prior to joining the Commission, he held the post of Assistant Director - Payments Systems and the Mauritius Credit Information Bureau (MCIB) at the Bank of Mauritius (BoM). He was also a member of the internal Fintech Committee and a member of the National Regulatory Sandbox License technical committee at the BoM.

Mr Thakoor was the country representative of the SADC Payment System Project and participated as payment system expert in the Regional Payment and Settlement System of the COMESA Clearing House.

He has been involved in a number of payment systems infrastructure and credit information bureau projects namely the Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS), the standardisation of cheques and the setting up of the Automated Cheque Clearing System, the truncation of cheques and electronic funds clearing, the development of the Mauritius Credit Information Bureau, the regulatory framework for mobile payments, the National Payment Switch and the Instant Payment System.