Ramani, after graduating in India with a degree in Mathematics, qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries London in 1977 and as an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers London in 1986. He also has a Graduate Diploma in Legal Studies from the University of Technology, Sydney.

Ramani commenced his career with Life Insurance Corporation of India in 1969 where he worked in Investment and Pensions. Joining Standard Chartered Bank Group in 1979, he gained exposure to merchant banking, gilts trading, financial control and commercial banking. He moved to Sydney in 1990 as Head of Finance in the Group. He joined the Insurance and Superannuation Commission in charge of complex superannuation fund audits in 1996. Since 1999, as a General Manager in APRA, he has been heading up a team of prudential supervisors responsible for some 90 banking, insurance and superannuation entities and groups.