Market watchdog Sebi is turning up the heat on market manipulators. During FY25, the regulator swooped down on 89 entities across 71 locations in 18 cities in high-intensity search and seizure operations. The blitz, revealed in its annual report released on August 12, marks one of the regulator’s most aggressive crackdowns in recent years.
Armed with fresh and cutting-edge analytics tools in its surveillance lab, Sebi has said that it can now connect the dots between suspicious entities faster than ever before. The new tech arsenal has slashed investigation time and manual drudgery, sharpening the accuracy of identifying dubious market activities. To widen the net, a new Market Intelligence Portal has now been set up for market participants to tip off the regulator about potential market abuse, the annual report said.
Sebi's actions did not stop at raids, and the regulator followed up with off-site supervisions, combing through automation alerts, meeting minutes, and filings from exchanges, depositories, and clearing corporations - collectively known as market infrastructure institutions (MIIs). The inspections at BSE, NSE, CDSL and NSDL helped tighten the surveillance systems and plug procedural gaps, Sebi said.
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The regulator also went after fund houses and intermediaries. In 2024-25, inspections were launched on 24 mutual funds and their RTAs, plus 13 portfolio managers. The off-site monitoring of all mutual funds was powered by algorithm-based alert systems, said Sebi.
The regulator's inspection drive covered almost every corner of the market ecosystem, which includes 312 stock brokers, 90 depository participants, 51 merchant bankers, 56 RTAs, 207 investment advisers, 149 research analysts, eight credit rating agencies, 11 debenture trustees, seven designated depository participants, seven custodians, and three KYC registration agencies.
Even alternative investment funds REITs and InvITs were covered, as. Sebi scrutinized 16 AIFs, two venture capital funds, five REITs, 17 InvITs, two ESG rating providers, and one depository last fiscal, to ensure systems, safeguards, compliance and grievance-handling were in top form.
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The message from Sebi is clear. In the battle against market abuse, no player is too big, too small, or too clever to escape its radar.
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