Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch on Thursday called for better compliance from market infrastructure participants and industry players to foster trust.
The Sebi chief was speaking at the Global Fintech Fest (GFF) in Mumbai in her first public address after New York-based shortseller Hindenburg Research said earlier this month it doubted her objectivity in probing the Adani Group for several violations, citing her alleged conflict of interest.
“Literally, compliance becomes just a low hum that goes on in the background,” she added.
“Our ultimate objective is that for every entity we regulate, compliance should simply be a low hum in the background. It’s like breathing. I do not have to think about breathing,” she said.
The Sebi chief also talked regarding recent norms bringing fractional ownership platforms in real estate under the regulatory ambit through Small and Medium Real Estate Investment Trusts (SM REITs), the Sebi chairperson noted that the industry had proactively sought regulation.
“They wanted to be regulated. They were operating in an unregulated environment and were suffering from the fact that investors did not have faith and trust in their products and services because it was unregulated,” she said.
Buch further said that to encourage innovation in fintech, the regulator’s role has been to create standards and infrastructure—including those to speed up the initial public offering (IPO) process, approvals for online bond platforms, and execution-only platforms for mutual funds.
She added that the regulator has accepted around 70 per cent of the proposals made by 16 working groups formulated to ease business operations. While 20 per cent of the proposals are under review, 10 per cent were not accepted because they either contradicted the core principles of regulations or were inconsistent.
The Sebi chief further said, “In March of this year, there was a long list of IPO papers pending, the number has come down to 8. That too is pending because of a judicial roadblock or from the fellow regulator.”
She also touched upon futures and options trading, where the market is expecting some regulations to tame the high volumes.
“We have received around 6,000 responses to our F&O consultation paper. Imagine if we had tried to do this manually; we would have died,” she said with a grin. She said this in the context of using technology.