SEBI sets up working group to chart technology roadmap for market infrastructure institutions

SEBI said the constitution of the group is aimed at ensuring that the Indian securities market remains future-ready, resilient and globally competitive, while aligning with India’s long-term vision of becoming a digitally empowered and developed economy.

• SEBI forms group to draft tech roadmaps for Market Infrastructure Institutions
• Group to focus on AI, blockchain, cloud, and quantum-safe systems for securities
• Recommendations aim to make India's securities market competitive and future-ready.

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The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has constituted a high-level Working Group to formulate a short-term (five-year) and long-term (ten-year) technology roadmap for Market Infrastructure Institutions (MIIs), amid rapid technological changes reshaping the securities market, according to a latest release.

SEBI Chair Tuhin Kanta Pandey at a recent event had noted that the regulator was in the process of constituting a working group. “As markets evolve, emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, bring new efficiencies but also fresh complexities,” Pandey cautioned. “The next frontier lies in anticipating risks before they surface.” Market infrastructure institutions, Pandey said, are the “foundational pillars of the securities ecosystem” and their governance “must therefore be unimpeachable.” To this end, he noted that SEBI has mandated external independent performance evaluations of MIIs and their statutory committees once every three years, in addition to internal evaluations.

According to the SEBI release, the move comes in response to the growing role of digital systems in market operations, surveillance, risk management, investor protection and regulatory oversight. The Working Group will adopt a holistic and forward-looking approach to the use of emerging technologies by MIIs, including artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), distributed ledger technology, cloud computing, SupTech and RegTech solutions, tokenisation, and quantum-safe systems.

The Working Group will be chaired by Dr DB Phatak, Professor Emeritus at IIT Bombay. Its members include chairpersons of the Standing Committee on Technology (SCOT) of MIIs, senior officials from stock brokers and Registrars and Transfer Agents (RTAs), as well as experts in technology and the securities market.

SEBI said the constitution of the group is aimed at ensuring that the Indian securities market remains future-ready, resilient and globally competitive, while aligning with India’s long-term vision of becoming a digitally empowered and developed economy.

The recommendations of the Working Group are expected to guide MIIs in strengthening technological capabilities and enhancing the overall efficiency and robustness of the market ecosystem.