We will not bring regulations not backed by data, says SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch

Sebi's Madhabi Puri Buch pointed out that the backtesting results showed that out of all the data that was required for assurance of the core BRSR, 95 percent was either immediately available or reasonably available within the company.

SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch said that to bring India on the path of realising its potential, for markets to progress and for the regulator to do its job partnerships will play an important role.

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Addressing the FICCI's Capital Markets Conference on November 16, the SEBI Chairperson said that there are many factors, which impact capital formation but there is only one thing in SEBI's control and that is to process and speedily give approvals leaving no room for delays or any malpractice.

It is in this regard that SEBI has introduced various reforms. One of the important reforms was on pendency. While technically every regulator counts pendency from the date of last receipt of information, this gives every regulatory officer the escape hatch that if they are reaching their target timeline, they simply ask another question, Buch said.

She said that SEBI has introduced reforms to tackle this loophole by looking at ageing from the date of the last receipt. This distinction makes every officer in SEBI accountable. “Pendency is not a bad thing. It is ageing. Time is money and money is time. Any delay from the regulator has a huge impact on costs for the market,” she said.

While SEBI is conscious about its commitment towards ease of doing business, there is an equal focus on trust - “If there is no trust in the business, there will be no business”, she added.

This trust comes through transparency. As a part of creating a balance between ease of doing business, trust and stakeholder protection, what they realised was that nobody has a dispute with the regulator on trust, the dispute was about how it is implemented - The devil is in the details, the chairperson said.

Also read: SEBI plans to experiment with 'shift' in regulatory architecture: Chairperson Madhabi Buch

As part of this commitment to address details and compliance, the Industry Standard Forum was started. It is currently in the pilot phase, said Buch, while expressing hope that this forum will become a formal part of regulatory architecture as a crucial step in easing compliance.

Another commitment Buch said was to focus on data rather than dogma – it is not about opinions and what everyone is saying, but rather what the data is, “We do not and will not bring regulation into the market that is not backed by data,” she added.

Buch said that SEBI is also conscious that not everything is as it appears and is a matter of perspective. “It works both ways – the regulator needs to look at issues in the market and the market needs to look at what the regulator is thinking. The forum was inspired by this requirement to make us aware of things we have been blind to and vice versa,” she explained.