New Delhi: Sebi on Monday imposed a penalty of Rs 25 lakh on MCX for inadequate disclosures regarding payment to 63 Moons Technologies for software services. The fine needs to be made within 45 days.
The case pertains to disclosure lapses regarding the payment made to 63 Moons Technologies for the trading software contract. MCX entered into a trading software contract with 63 Moons Technologies in 2003. At that time, 63 Moons fully owned MCX.
In 2020, MCX decided to shift to a new trading platform (CDP) and gave the development contract to TCS. However, several delays occurred in the CDP rollout, leading MCX to decide to extend services with 63 Moons at a significantly higher cost.
MCX disclosed in press releases between September to December 2022 that it had extended Support & Managed services for its existing trading and clearing platform with 63 Moons, but did not disclose the high payments being made — Rs 60 crore for October-December 2022 and Rs 81 crore per quarter till half-year ended June 2023. This totalled Rs 222 crore over three quarters (October 2022-June 2023), Sebi said in its order.
This amount was almost twice the company’s profit in FY22 (Rs 118 crore), yet was disclosed only in January 2023, it added.