SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey on Thursday laid out the regulator’s next phase of reform direction with a clear focus on simplifying disclosures in IPO-bound companies, boosting depth in corporate bond markets, and strengthening commodity market access, even as the regulator continues sharpening market integrity tools.
For IPO-bound companies, SEBI will further rationalise the existing offer document summary. Importantly, this shorter summary will also be made available separately to investors, independent of the full offer document, to encourage real feedback and reduce information overload. Pandey said, “The existing contents of the Offer Document summary will be further rationalized. This summary will also be made available separately to investors from the Offer Document, to encourage informed feedback from them”.
SEBI also plans to streamline the process involving IPO-bound companies whose pre-IPO shares are pledged. The new framework would ensure that lock-in conditions are automatically enforced, even when the pledge is invoked or released, preventing deal friction and last-minute listing delays. SEBI chief Pandey said, consultation papers for these proposals are expected to be out soon”.
Pandey also emphasised its focus on the corporate bond market. Pandey said, “For the corporate bond market, our way forward will be to make debt instruments more attractive for retail. We have floated a proposal to allow debt issuers to offer incentives to certain investor categories to encourage retail participation and other rationalisation measures. A nationwide education campaign to make investors aware about this market will be rolled out shortly”. He said, RBI and SEBI are also consulting on the introduction of bond derivatives.
Strengthening commodity markets remains a priority. SEBI and RBI will jointly work towards a framework enabling prudent institutional participation, including banks, insurance companies and pension funds. A proposal to allow FPIs to trade in non-cash settled non-agricultural commodity derivative contracts is under examination. Strengthening the commodity markets is a priority for SEBI. Pandey said, “We will work with RBI towards a regulatory framework to enable prudent institutional (banks, insurance companies, and pension funds) access to the commodity markets”. He said, a proposal to allow foreign portfolio investors to trade in non-cash settled non-agricultural commodity derivative contracts is currently under examination.
On market integrity and cyber safety, Pandey underlined that cyber risk preparedness is central to future market stability. He said a comprehensive Cybersecurity & Cyber Resilience Framework (CSCRF) is now mandated for all regulated entities. NSE and BSE will support smaller intermediaries by setting up a market Security Operations Centre.
He said, Governance at MIIs is being tightened to ensure public interest is always prioritised over commercial considerations. Stress testing norms for small and mid-cap MF schemes too will directly enhance resilience by forcing prudent liquidity discipline. UPI has emerged as a secure payment backbone, Rs 4.4 lakh crore of investor funds have now entered markets through validated UPI handles. Surveillance is now heavily AI + data analytics driven. Platforms have been told to take down misleading digital content, over one lakh such pieces have already been escalated.
Pandey also acknowledged, the some of the steps taken by RBI for the capital markets. He said, the increase in the IPO financing limit for individuals from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 25 lakh will enable deeper retail participation in large public issues. RBI has also enhanced the limit for lending by banks against units of REITs and InvITs, while removing the ceiling on lending against listed debt securities. This will make these instruments more attractive as investment avenues.
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