Manoj Vaish has resigned as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the country’s leading commodity exchange MCX exactly three months after joining the bourse, citing health reasons.

The resignation comes amid a tussle between Multi Commodity Exchange of India and erstwhile promoter Financial Technologies (India) Ltd on the issues of divestment of FTIL’s stake in the bourse and PwC’s audit report on corporate governance at the exchange.

“Manoj Vaish has resigned from the position yesterday on health grounds. Vaish has asked the exchange to relieve him at the earliest,” MCX Chairman Satyendra Mishra told PTI.

Vaish’s resignation will be placed before the MCX board when it meets next. He will work with the board of directors during the transition period until a new chief is appointed, Mishra said.

Vaish joined MCX on February 1, replacing Shreekant Javalgekar, who stepped down following the Rs 5,600-crore payment crisis at FTIL’s subsidiary National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL), which surfaced in July.

Before joining MCX, Vaish was Managing Director of NSDL Database Management. He was an Executive Director of the BSE between 1998 and 2004 and President and CEO of financial services research firm Dun & Bradstreet.

In the wake of the NSEL crisis, commodity markets regulator Forward Markets Commission (FMC) had declared FTIL unfit to run an exchange and ordered it to reduce its stake in MCX to 2 per cent from the existing 26 per cent.

The FMC had asked MCX to ensure completion of the divestment by April 30. However, the process could not be completed as bidders sought more time to study the PwC report on transactions between MCX and FTIL group firms. (PTI)