For RBI, bank compliance officers are no Cleopatra

Given a choice, the prospective chief compliance officers (CCOs) of the Indian banking system would love to hear the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) describe them the way Enobarbus had described Cleopatra: “Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety”. (William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, Scene II).

The RBI seems to think the compliance officers become stale after the age of 55 and, hence, unsuitable for the position of CCO. In The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50, author and journalist Jonathan Rauch writes: “Those …