The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) called a press briefing on July 24, where key updates were shared. Here are the highlights.
The live blog session has concluded. For more news, views and updates, stay tuned with Moneycontrol.com.
SEBI Press Conference LIVE | Need more work on instantaneous settlement, not sure if it will be completed by FY24, says Buch
"On instantaneous settlement, we need a little more work. IfASBAgoes smoothly, then the next step isinstantaneous settlement...not sure if this will be completed by this financial year," SEBI chief Madhai Puri Buchsaid.
SEBI Press Conference LIVE | Rs 33,000 crore debt backstop fund to be inaugurated by FM Sitharaman on July 28
"There will be a Rs 33,000 crore debt backstop fund...On Friday, the Finance Minister (Nirmala Sitharaman) will be coming to inaugurate that," SEBI chief Buch said.
SEBI Press Conference LIVE | Buch clarifies on mechanism to implement regulations
"The current arrangement (in regulations) will continue, if standards can be improved, we will welcome it (suggestions)," Buch said, while adding that there is anew mechanism to implement regulation, and not a mechanism for deferment of regulations.
Earlier during the press conference, the SEBI chief had talked about a new regulatory design. "Essentially, this new element in the regulatory design is as follows: We have seen over the last many months that as we bring out various regulations or modify various regulations, we find that at a policy level we have a lot of valuable inputs that comes to us from advisory committees and public consultation. We get a lot of input, we take that and create our regulation, then public consultation and we approve it."
"However when they are implemented, we find that two things happen. One is that a lot of queries come to us on how are these supposed to be implemented...andwill this be adequatelycompliantetc. First we tried to explain this through FAQs and more detailed circulars. On deeper reflection, we came to the conclusion that what we are dealing with is standard setting for implementation... this is not the regulation but about implement. This task is done by industry bodies themselves," she added.
"Now our regulations will take us to a certain stage of expressing regulatory intent and what is to be done, but a lot of ease of doing business lies in the details of how to implement," she further noted.
SEBI Press Conference LIVE | Consultation paper on tracking UPSI to be out by August-end
"We had a consultation paper out on tracking UPSI, we realised that there will be more UPSI events... so a good trading plan is all the more essential.By end of August we should have a consultation paper soon... to make this trading plan easier," SEBI chief said.
SEBI Press Conference LIVE | Consultation paper likely by December on delisting norms
"Before December, there might a consultation paper out," SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch said, adding that currently, SEBIhasa reverse book building and the moment you touch 90 percent, "you arrive at a price... industry has been telling us that they have found certain problems there".
In reverse book building, theconcern is that certain constituents in the market, in anticipation of delisting, acquire those shares in a concerted bid to cross 10 percent so that they are not able to cross the 90 percent, "and then to cross the 90 percent, the price is jacked up... which is unsustainable".
"It is a question of looking at the bids and seeing what happens to the bids as it comes closer to the delisting," Buch said, adding, "Sometimes, there is a difference between an investor getting a fair value and extracting more value... we need to balance out the requirements of both.
SEBI Press Conference LIVE | Ease of doing business lies in the details of how to implement, Buch says
"...our regulations will take us to a certain stage of expressing regulatory intent and what is to be done, but a lot of ease of doing business lies in the details of how to implement," Buch said, in response to a query.
"Example on where we are headed: Let's take for instance one of our circulars on rumour verification. The regulation in the circular conveys the intent of saying that if there is a rumour in the market... it is there and making the price move, then the company needs to come in and verify that rumour.That is a regulation that no one has a dispute about... but the challenge is how to implement it.What we understood is that most corporates already has a media-tracking service... it is already there. Is it our desire as a regulator that they invest hundreds of crores to invest in a parallel system? Of course not!" she told reporters.
SEBI Press Conference LIVE | REITs and InVITs 'very important mode' for capital formation in markets going forward: Buch
"We think this is a very, very important mode for capital formation in markets going forward," she said, adding thatREITs and InVITs are permitted leverage, in order to give sponsors ability to exit and facilitate professional investment managers to emerge.
SEBI Press Conference LIVE | 'We don't like Abhimanyus': Buch on framework for voluntary delisting
"In Sebi, we don't like Abhimanyus, nobody should feel that once they get in, they cannot get out. Therefore, we introduced a framework for voluntary delist," SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch said, while commenting on the framework for voluntary delisting.
SEBI Press Conference LIVE | Lot of attempts on how to bring in more liquidity in bond market: Buch
"There has been lot of attempt in the ecosystem on how to bring in more liquidity in the bond market... retail participation was nil. Online bond platforms were springing up but they came with risks," Buch said. "Our objective was to really facilitate what was organically evolving in the market and put risk-mitigation measures, so that the foundation is strong," she added.
SEBI Press Conference LIVE | Raft of reforms introduced in terms of debt issuances, Buch says
"In terms of debt issuances, there was a raft of reforms...most of them developmental in nature," she said. "People who are frequent issuers (debt), every time they wanted to come to market and make six or seven issuances, every time it was the same process...the value additionwas nil. So, we moved to general information document for the year, and for each issuance it was a slim, simple document filing, to go away with multiple filing and costs," he added.
SEBI Press Conference LIVE | Buch on flexibility in minimum public shareholding norms
"If there is no significant risks perceived in certain ways of doing things, then why not give that flexibility to the market," she said, on being asked about the regulator's view on flexibility in minimum public shareholding norms.
SEBI Press Conference LIVE: Buch on relaxations made related to open offers
On open offers, Buch said, "We made relaxations, one was specifically for PSUs. We had taken a view that some of the regulations were not applicable for public sector units... the risks envisaged weren't there in a PSU environment, and the kind of processes that PSUs need to find a suitor was completely different. So, we changed the process to determine the open offer price for PSUs".
SEBI Press Conference LIVE: Buch shares what regulator has done for faster access to funds
T+6 to T+3 was the perfect case where it was a "win, win, win", SEBI chief said, adding thatIssuers were delighted that money came three days earlier. Those who got allotment,their shares were given three days earlier,and those who didn't got allotment, their funds get released, she added. "This was facilitated through our India stack."
SEBI Press Conference LIVE: Pension funds norms relaxed to allow greater number of participants
Aset of participants were not allowed in pension funds, Buch said, adding that"this was relaxed to allow greater number of participants could come in".
SEBI Press Conference LIVE: Confidential filing allowed, IPO prospectus can be made public only if firm feels confident, Buch says
On flexibility of confidential filing of draft of a document, SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch said this was a "request from new-tech companies". Many of them had expressed this requirement, which the regulator has decided to implement.
"They can do confidential filing, test the market and, only when they are confident that they want to go forward with the IPO, then the prospectus is made public," she said.
SEBI Press Conference LIVE: 'India first major economy to move to T+1 for all its scrips, this is path breaking', says Buch
On T+1 settlement, Buch said,"This is a global first. India is the first major economy that has moved to T+1 for all its scrips. This is considered path breaking...many jurisdictions conveyed that they were facing significant challenges to move into this settlement (regime)".
The immediate impact from this is that Rs 10,000 crore of margin has been released back into the system, she added.
SEBI Press Conference LIVE: Moving into ASBA-like system leads to 10X benefits, says Buch
Money routed through ASBAis around Rs 6 lakh crore (this excludes anchor investors) just for this four days, and the annual benefit to investors is Rs 260 crore, SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch said."When you move this to Asba-like systems for trading, the benefit is almost 10x", she said, adding that Rs 2,300 crore of interest value will go back to the investors on the basis of closeto Rs 60,000 crore margin that is posted by then, "and this is just for the qualified stock brokers".
As the ecosystem develops further capability, this could even go up to double, she added.
SEBI Press Conference LIVE: Rs 3,500 cr of interest value of funds released into the system, on account of system improvements, Buch says
As much as Rs 3,500 crore of interest value of funds has been released into the system, on account of improvements we have brought into the system, SEBI chief Buch told reporters.
SEBI Press Conference LIVE:
In mutual fund schemes, the improvement is even more dramatic, with pendency in the 175-watermark comingdown to six, SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch said.
