MC EXCLUSIVE A year towards ‘optimum regulation’: SEBI chief Tuhin Kanta Pandey outlines reform roadmap

SEBI to examine concerns on solution oriented MF schemes, and issues of taxation in Life cycle fund schemes

• SEBI chief marks one year focused on 'optimum regulation'
• India led globally in IPO volumes in 2025, third by value
• SEBI completed 58 reforms, eyes major regulatory overhauls

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Marking one year at the helm of the capital markets regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Chairman, Tuhin Kanta Pandey, said the past 12 months have been defined by a push towards 'optimum regulation', balancing market growth with investor protection while undertaking sweeping regulatory reviews across segments.

In an exclusive interaction with Moneycontrol, SEBI chairman said the year was challenging due to global geopolitical volatility, but India’s market showed resilience, particularly in primary market issuances. In the current financial year, companies raised around Rs 4.2 trillion through equity issuances and Rs 7.4 trillion through debt issues. Companies raised Rs 1.8 trillion through 329 IPOs, including 97 main board and 232 SMEs.

Pandey highlighted that India emerged as the top market globally in terms of IPO volumes in 2025 and ranked third by value, even as external uncertainties weighed on global capital flows. Both equity and debt issuances held steady through the year, reflecting sustained investor confidence and strong domestic participation, he said.

Describing the regulatory approach, Pandey said SEBI’s efforts were guided by four core principles of transparency, trust, teamwork, and technology.

Pandey said, “This was a year of reforms aimed at optimum regulation. Neither unnecessarily increasing regulation nor really under-regulating it”. He said that the regulator introduced 58 reforms focused largely on ease of doing business across stakeholders.

Pandey said SEBI is moving away from incremental tweaks toward comprehensive regulatory overhauls. Over the past year, the regulator completed end-to-end reviews of Stock Broker Regulations and Mutual Fund Regulation, including addressing residual issues of mutual fund classification. Pandey said, “The comprehensive reviews allow us to look at really doing much more than small, piecemeal fixes”.

He said the next focus area right now is reviewing the Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements (LODR) regulations, Settlement Regulations, and Portfolio Management Services (PMS) norms. He said, going forward, there will be a changeover due to the implementation of the new securities market regulation.  Completion of these reviews would mark a significant update in large parts of the regulatory framework, Pandey noted.

A key structural shift on the horizon is the proposed Securities Market Code, which aims to consolidate and modernise the legal framework governing India’s capital markets. Once enacted, SEBI will need to align existing regulations with the new code, potentially triggering another round of regulatory harmonisation.