SEBI to enhance outreach with more local presence across state capitals, cities

SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) aims to improve its regulatory outreach by establishing physical local presence at various state capitals and cities across India.

"In light of increasing investor population and evolving investor demographic across the breadth of the country, the Board deliberated on enhancing SEBI’s presence and decided to establish Local Offices at State Capitals and other major cities in a phased and graded manner," stated the SEBI release.

"In the first Phase, the major Cities where SEBI intends to establish local offices are Chandigarh, Jaipur, Lucknow, Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, Vijayawada, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. Other states and major cities would be considered in subsequent phases." it added.

The capital market regulator highlighted the fact that currently, Investor Service Centers (ISCs) established by stock exchanges at various locations across India provide services to handle investor grievances as well as undertake investor awareness activities and such activities are augmented by SEBI through digital presence of its officers.

"However, there is a need for deeper, next-level engagement for comprehensive developmental and regulatory support on the ground," stated the SEBI release.

According to the capital market regulator, the proposed setting up of local offices would enable SEBI to enhance its connect with investors, intermediaries and issuers, particularly SMEs, start-ups, REITs, Non-profits (for listing on Social Stock Exchanges) etc., apart from improving its ability to monitor unregulated activities and gathering market intelligence at the local level.

Currently, apart from its Head Office at Mumbai, SEBI has regional offices operating out of Ahmedabad, New Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai and a local office at Indore.