Triple mandate of investment protection, development of markets and regulation of markets will bring four elements of trust, transparency, technology and team work: Tyhin Kanta Pandey
SEBI president Tuhin Kanta Pandey There is more than a month in your job and has taken several measures to ensure more confidence in the stock market regulator. In an interview Toi’s safe Gupta and Siddharth, Pandey Talks about many issues and assures investors that Indian markets are safe against the backdrop of instability arising from global events. Part …
What are your priority areas?
We have received three mandates, which are investment protection, development of markets and regulation of markets. The four elements we will bring are trusts, transparency, technology and teamwork. In belief, it will be the belief of people in the belief of SEBI and SEBI’s own ecosystem, both need to be promoted. There is also a need to update the struggle of interest criteria, for which we have established a committee and it will give us a lot of guidance on how we put our structure. Another issue on the trust is how we are going to make our rules.
The regulation must be optimal, which are risk-based. If you have a high amount of risk, there should be a high probe, if there is a low amount of risk or something that does not need to be micromand, in that case, we should not come in it. So that balance is required. We also need to see some of the previous rules. Whether they may be necessary in a particular context, but can now change the context, or the technology has acted, or the system has improved and therefore such micromainment may not be relevant. In that case, we should eliminate them. Each department is being asked to look at its rules and work with stakeholders to find out what the points are that can be simplified.
In a sense, are you promoting ease of doing business?
Yes, it is easy to ensure that market integrity is maintained at all times, and investors are duly preserved, it is easy to ensure. With the development of the market, there are new products, the Indian capital market is growing rapidly. It has all the elements. It has a variety of risks. There are different variations, which are already. The futures market has different possibilities, such as energy futures.
The markets are now very unstable. How do you assure investor community that Indian markets are safe?
Our payment and disposal systems are very strong. No default is Possibil Ity. The contracts will be honored. People can enter and exit without any difficulty. When we are interacting with other market participants, FIIs and other investors, they have a lot of confidence in our institutions, our ability to handle. Indian systems are the most modern in the world, the most safe in the world. From 2019 to 2024, CAGR in India was 8.5% in terms of dollars. During this period it was zero for the emerging market and 3% minus for China.
Since the 1990s, when FII was allowed, the markets have consecutively given a double -point return in terms of dollars. These markets have developed over a period of time. We are estimating 6.5% GDP growth and basic things are strong. The budget has offered encouragement, which will promote domestic consumption and the RBI policy has been assistant and adjusted. The headwinds are there, there is no doubt. But India can also give some opportunities, it is relatively speaking.
Have you increased monitoring Market, what is happening around the world?
We are always on 24×7 surveillance. SEBI is constantly looking at the situation in coordination with exchanges. And, we had, even the worst days when you had a sharp decline, we had an impact. In relative to the rest of the world, India was very little affected.
What is the position of playing on IPO? Do you see something slow due to volatility?
Seeing large -scale subscriptions, there were some concerns around some small IPOs.
On the SME IPO issue, changes have been made by SEBI and some regulatory measures have been brought. On the main board, IPOs have increased. The largest number of IPOs in India was. Conversely, there are markets where IPOs are not possible for the whole year.
What is the progress on a common KYC in the financial sector?
There is good progress. Both SEBI and RBI have to work together and there are some points that need to be ironed, which we must be able to do soon.
What is the situation if foreign individuals allowed direct investment in Indian stock markets?
Some discussion is happening. The Department of Economic Affairs is reviewing the FEMA rules. One of them belongs to NRIS and a limit of 5% that they are thinking about increasing it by 10% and overall to 24%. Again, it is considered that investors may be asked to do so directly. But we still have to investigate and deliberately investigate. There is a discussion on how KYC will be done, what will be implicated and so on. Right now, individuals can come, but they have to come through FII or through a fund.
What is your idea in the foreign list of Indian companies?
Conversely, there are many companies that want to list in India and we should welcome it. We will make it convenient. We are here to develop our capital market. Reverse flipping is happening.
Does SEBI need to do more on communication with the market?
We are communicating. We put a lot of things on the website and SEBI have very good practices. We should appreciate that they have been developed over the period of time and the gradual leadership in SEBI has honored the place, nurturing it. The organization has come, facing many challenges and has also improved. Obviously, we have to be constantly on this step because no decency is acceptable. A piece that was missing, we did not have a very active social media appearance and we have recently unveiled it.
There is also a lot of wrong information. Are you planning a fact check?
We immediately come to areas where there are some false online platforms and an attempt is made to cheat money in the name of investment through cyber fraud. Then, there is also an issue of fin-fluenners. With the help of meta and google, we have taken something like 70,000 Fin-Flunser from YouTube. At the same time, we also want the industry to develop more and there should be registered institutions.
Are you looking to promote new types of futures like energy futures? Agricultural futures have been a no-go region. Will you review it?
We are progressing around that (energy futures) because a lot of things have been developed and a lot of regulatory barriers have been crossed. You should see this soon. Regarding agriculture, some important products are not available. This is something that is hindering the industry. But this is a policy call, which is to be taken by the government.
India has moved forward and Introduced a T+0 for a select number of stocks. What is a roadmap?
If you ask me, T+1 is quite good.
How many challenges do you find that new technology, such AI, is for the capital markets?
AI is to be seen from both sides. It has heavy capacity. For example, SEBI itself uses a lot of AI devices and moves forward, we would like to use it in all areas of our work. But AI also has some other points, which are risk. Therefore, we also need to develop a risk mitigation strategy.
One of the irritability to the people is the IEPF (Investor Education and Protection Fund) guidelines. There are a lot of complaints that people are not able to settle their actual claims …
Active efforts should be made so that it does not need to go to IEPF. SEBI will actually find out. We will facilitate the use of transfer agents registered by IEPF for processing. We will help them process any claim. Then in the next two months we will jointly operate the investor Shivar with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in Mumbai and Gujarat, where we will find the top corporate RTA where we owe a big IEPF. They have leaders and companies are trying.
What are other measures that regulators are considering to make the market more secure for a new retaile investor?
We need to increase investor awareness. People coming to the stock market are a welcome thing. After all, you have to deploy your savings. The most important thing is that people should not borrow to invest. This is an issue where sometimes you learn some relaxed advice from your friends and relatives. Sometimes, you are whisper in some risky undertakings on the advice of some of your relaxed peers. Then sometimes you lose money.
The issue is that it is like a behavioral issue. And in practice, you may have an awareness element. We would like to increase that awareness element. The mutual fund industry is driving its awareness. So, not everyone comes in very risky things. Because some people may be attracted to very unusual benefits, which can show some listed companies. On the awareness part, we want to make our efforts more simultaneously as an ecosystem. Ideally, we should also cooperate with other regulators and work together for financial awareness of a high order.
