Vinod Kothari is internationally recognized as an author, trainer and consultant on specialized financial subjects, viz., non-banking financial services, structured finance and securitisation, housing finance, credit derivatives, asset-backed financing, banking regulations etc. As such, he lectures all over the world. The locations where he has lectured on these subjects include New York, Washington, London, Milan, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney, Colombia (South America), South Africa, Malaysia, Jordan, Dubai, Kuwait, Egypt, China, Indonesia,  Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, etc.

Mr. Kothari with his efficient team has handled very diverse groups – from rating agency professionals in Malaysia, to group of investors in Sydney, to tax officers in South Africa, to group of lawyers in India, to executives of the World’s largest securitisation agency in Washington, to a group of quants in New York.

Vinod Kothari is also a fellow member of ICSI and associate member of ICAI. His firm Vinod Kothari and Company has been engaged in the practice of corporate laws for nearly 35 years. He is founder of Vinod Kothari Consultants, a leading consulting firm in BFSI sector, working out of Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru, and servicing almost every leading player in the sector, from traditional regulated lenders to the new-age fintech entities.

Consulting & Training 

Securitisation/ Credit Derivatives/ Credit Risk:

Vinod Kothari is an accomplished trainer on structured finance and offers about 20 training courses every year on structured finance, securitisation and credit derivatives all over the World. 

ICAAP, Stress testing, Risk Management, credit decisioning and pricing:

Vinod Kothari Consultants prepared ICAAP reports for several leading non-banking finance companies every year. In addition, the firm carries out stress testing of loan portfolios, liquidity stress testing, compliance risk assessment, etc. The firm is also regularly engaged in examining credit risk pricing, interest rate models and validation of expected loss computations. 

Housing Finance:

Over the years, Vinod Kothari Consultants has handled various consulting assignments in the field of housing finance, from the preparation of housing finance toolkits, to securitisation of residential mortgage loans. Vinod Kothari assisted a Jordan government project for affordable housing. 

Leasing:

For years, Vinod Kothari has been called the guru of leasing; from the very emergence of leasing in the early 1980s to its various phases of booms and busts, Vinod Kothari has been the source of guidance for leasing players all over the region, including leasing entities in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh..

Consultant to World Bank, IFC and ADB:

Vinod Kothari has handled various short-term consulting assignments for World Bank, IFC and ADB. The projects include leasing, residential mortgage securitisation (resulting in formation of RMBS Development Company), affordable housing, housing microfinance, municipal bonds, bond markets in India, credit guarantee schemes, partial credit guarantees for infrastructure financing, etc.

Corporate laws:

Vinod Kothari’s firm, Vinod Kothari and Company, is engaged in practice as company secretaries, a field of practice in corporate laws, for over 35 years.

Support to regulators

  • Vinod Kothari and colleagues continue to provide support to regulators, including SEBI, RBI, NHB for effective regulation of the corporate sector and financial markets..
  • Vinod Kothari has been on several committees of SEBI. He has been the chairperson of the working group on introduction of mortgage REITs in India, chairperson of the working group on amendment of securitisation regulations,  lead of the sub-group on trading in security receipts, and a member of the working group on enforcement of security interests by debenture trustees. Vinod Kothari was responsible for drafting the securitisation regulations in India in 2007, and at subsequent stages of amendment.
  • Vinod Kothari was a part of Ministry of Civil Aviation working group to facilitate rupee-denominated aircraft leasing in India. The Working Group report, called Rupee Raftaar, was released in Jan., 2019
  • Has been retained by National Housing Bank for assisting them in promoting Covered Bonds in India.
  • Was a part of Working Committee formulated by National Housing Bank for promoting capital market instruments such as RMBS and Covered Bonds for the housing sector in India.

Author of Books

Lecturing

  • Regular speaker at professional institutes.
  • Has been a Visiting faculty at Indian Institute of Management, Joka, Calcutta for several years, teaching a fully-fledged course for the final year students on Structured Finance.
  • Was a visiting faculty at National University of Juridical Sciences for some years.

Education

VK is a Chartered Accountant and a Company Secretary with brilliant academic record. He has been rankholder in high school, college, and topped the Eastern Region in Chartered Accountancy final exams.

Awards

  • Winner of the Sahibjada Abdul Wahid Silver Medal, Central Board of Secondary Education, in 1977, for highest marks in Hindi
  • Winner of Silver Medal for topper Easter India Regional Council in ICAI, Nov., 1983
  • In 1987, a voluntary organisation of Calcutta chose him as the Outstanding Young Person of Calcutta in the field of Finance and Taxation. VK won several academic awards
  • Best Secretarial Audit Report Award, 2019 to Partner, Vinita Nair
  • 3rd ICSI Best PCS Firm Award, 2023
  • Best Secretarial Audit Report Award, 2023 to Partner, Nitu Poddar

Diverse Interests

Occasionally, VK writes/presents on diverse subjects:

Poem titled- “देख मत मुड़कर परिन्दे”

Jain Philosophy and Modern Economics: Conflict or Complementarity – part 1 and part 2

Ethics is Good Business, a presentation

Occasional writings or paras on diverse subjects may be seen on www.vinodkothari.com/ramblings

Translation of couplets of Kriparam Charan, called Rajiya ra duha, from Rajasthani to English

Heart-rending tale of Eternal Hope – a Story for Timeless Tales of Marwar

A small verse on Too Big to Fail, and therefore, we need to bail

A poem on the problem of climate change, environment and clean energy