SEBI’s New Chief on Transparency & Reforms in Securities Market

Mint Newspaper (Neha Joshi) has written a piece on SEBI’s new chairperson, Mr. Tuhin Kanta Pandey, highlighting his remarks at the Moneycontrol-CNBC Global Wealth Summit on transparency, regulatory rationalization, and stakeholder engagement. In this context, Mr. Sumit Agrawal, Founder & Managing Partner of Regstreet Law Advisors, is quoted in Mint’s article titled “𝘌𝘯𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘺, 𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘶𝘮 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘣𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘴: 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘚𝘦𝘣𝘪’𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘧.”

Mr. Sumit Agrawal has pointed out existing information gaps such as delayed publication of SEBI’s agenda and stated that while SEBI publishes press releases summarizing board meeting outcomes, the underlying discussions remain largely undisclosed.

Mr. Agrawal emphasized the need for greater transparency in SEBI’s decision-making processes, particularly concerning dissenting opinions and conflict-of-interest disclosures within its board. He stated that past concerns regarding conflicts involving a former chairperson highlight the need for clearer public disclosure of deliberations in such cases. While SEBI does have a code on conflict of interests for board members, but how it is applied in real scenarios remains opaque. Thus, a periodic review and strengthening of this code into a regulation would improve governance at Sebi board meetings.

With respect to optimum regulation, Mr. Agrawal called for a data-driven approach to identifying redundant provisions, advocating for a systematic review of SEBI’s 44 regulations and thousands of circulars. He is of the opinion that a practical approach would be to map each provision based on its actual application in administrative and enforcement actions. Provisions that have remained unused for an extended period should be considered for removal.

Securities law enthusiasts can send their comments to Regstreet Law Advisors at info@regstreetlaw.com

A full text of the article can be accessed at: https://lnkd.in/dtWzQ8V5