Sebi has staff whose job is to read your reports: Chief Sinha to scribes
31 Aug 2014 4:26 AM IST
While probing manipulators in the capital markets space, some officials at regulator Sebi have got a specific job that they do very seriously — that is reading media reports to get leads on possible irregularities. Scanning of news reports has been integrated into Sebi’s surveillance and market intelligence systems, while necessary follow-up action is flagged off to the concerned departments or authorities whenever anything suspicious comes to the fore.
‘I would also like to tell you that we read media reports very seriously. There are people whose job is to read your reports,’ Sebi Chairman U K Sinha said. ‘And wherever we find that something wrong is happening, we follow-up on those cases,’ he said.
‘We have created a very strong electronic surveillance mechanism... There is a major technological advancement that we have done,’ he said, adding that its new surveillance mechanism is giving Sebi ‘a lot of pipeline of cases for further probes. Among others, news reports also help Sebi determine whether the companies have followed all necessary norms in their business plans.
Stock exchanges have already been asked by Sebi to seek clarification from listed companies whenever any important news comes in media regarding them and if the same has not been informed to the investors through regulatory system.
Asked whether Sebi was looking at social media space also to prevent its possible misuse, Sinha said, ‘That is an area where Sebi needs to cover some more ground. I don’t think we are fully on top of it.’
Sinha also sent a strong signal to those dressing up their illicit money-pooling schemes as ‘credit cooperative societies’ or other permissible activities, market regulator Sebi has said it is very serious in bringing them to book and is not wary of ‘intensive litigations’. He said that the regulator has come across entities which try to evade its jurisdiction by claiming to be running legal businesses such as credit cooperatives, chit funds and even NBFCs.
Sinha said that ‘in one particular case, which is a large case, the company was earlier under RBI domain. RBI took action and they shifted everything to something they thought was under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and we thought it was under Sebi’s jurisdiction’.
‘When we took action, there was news that now we are getting into co-operative society funds... People will still try, what I am saying is that not everything is plugged. ‘However we are determined that we will fight all these cases. If we have an evidence that somebody has raised Rs 100 crore, we will fight those cases and let people come out with their defences.’
‘I would also like to tell you that we read media reports very seriously. There are people whose job is to read your reports,’ Sebi Chairman U K Sinha said. ‘And wherever we find that something wrong is happening, we follow-up on those cases,’ he said.
‘We have created a very strong electronic surveillance mechanism... There is a major technological advancement that we have done,’ he said, adding that its new surveillance mechanism is giving Sebi ‘a lot of pipeline of cases for further probes. Among others, news reports also help Sebi determine whether the companies have followed all necessary norms in their business plans.
Stock exchanges have already been asked by Sebi to seek clarification from listed companies whenever any important news comes in media regarding them and if the same has not been informed to the investors through regulatory system.
Asked whether Sebi was looking at social media space also to prevent its possible misuse, Sinha said, ‘That is an area where Sebi needs to cover some more ground. I don’t think we are fully on top of it.’
Sinha also sent a strong signal to those dressing up their illicit money-pooling schemes as ‘credit cooperative societies’ or other permissible activities, market regulator Sebi has said it is very serious in bringing them to book and is not wary of ‘intensive litigations’. He said that the regulator has come across entities which try to evade its jurisdiction by claiming to be running legal businesses such as credit cooperatives, chit funds and even NBFCs.
Sinha said that ‘in one particular case, which is a large case, the company was earlier under RBI domain. RBI took action and they shifted everything to something they thought was under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and we thought it was under Sebi’s jurisdiction’.
‘When we took action, there was news that now we are getting into co-operative society funds... People will still try, what I am saying is that not everything is plugged. ‘However we are determined that we will fight all these cases. If we have an evidence that somebody has raised Rs 100 crore, we will fight those cases and let people come out with their defences.’
Next Story
