SEBI's first meeting under Tuhin Kanta Pandey today: FPI threshold, conflict of interest on agenda

The Securities and Exchange Board of India under the new leadership of Tuhin Kanta Pandey will hold its first board meeting today. The SEBI board will discuss several things – disclosure of FPI threshold and conflict of interest being part of the main agenda.

According to a report by the Economic Times, the policy framework for the conflict of interest disclosure is likely to be discussed by the SEBI board today. Apart from this, the board may also take up the plan of appointment of critical postings at the stock exchanges among other things.

The conflict of interest disclosure gains significance after the controversy surrounding Pandey’s predecessor Madhabi Puri Buch came to limelight following the accusations by Hindenburg Research and the Congress, which is the main opposition party.

Both Madhabi Puri Buch as well as SEBI had refuted all the charges. As per the norms, all members of the SEBI board as well as their spouses are supposed to disclose their assets to the market watchdog. The norms, which were introduced back in 2008, lack sharp scrutiny.

While board members and their spouses are mandated to disclose share transactions, the nodal officer monitoring these disclosures does not separately analyse share transactions to whether the members of the board have violated the conflict-of-interest code or not.

Other part-time members appointed to the board can make the disclosures to their parent organisations, thus exempting from submitting any details to the SEBI, the ET report said.

Apart from this, the Pandey-led board will also take up the proposal to double the threshold for granular disclosures by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) from Rs 25,000 crore to Rs 50,000 crore.