Sebi working to cut compliance burden, says chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey

Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is planning to reduce regulatory costs and compliance burden to enhance the competitiveness of the securities market.

"Cost of capital is an important cost, and it should come down," Sebi chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said on Thursday on the sidelines of an event organised by Sebi and NISM. "Cost efficiency of all our measures is important. If you have to build competitiveness, then there is a compliance burden on regulation. It is too high in terms of cost and time," he said.

The focus on cost efficiency, Pandey said, is aimed at improving access to finance across all productive sectors.


NSDL glitch

Separately, on the recent technical glitch in the inter-depository transfer system at NSDL that led to delays in some investors receiving their stocks, the regulator has sought a root-cause analysis report, the Sebi chief said.

Once the depository submits its report, it will be placed before Sebi's technical advisory committee. Based on the findings, corrective measures would be taken, including systems upgrades or vendor-level interventions, he said, adding that settlement backlogs were cleared over the weekend, and depository systems have been functioning normally since Monday.

Pandey said the regulator is working on establishing a framework for regulatory impact assessment. This was first mentioned by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her previous budget announcements, he said.

Sebi has also formed a committee headed by Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran to guide on assessing regulatory impact.

The regulator is also planning to launch a Centre for Regulatory Studies. "There are regulatory impact assessments in other jurisdictions also. That will also be studied in the way it is being done elsewhere. We need to have our own models and research in India," Pandey said.