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Sebi seeks 'super regulator' status

Proposing a single "super regulator", Securities and Exchange Board of India on Tuesday sought more powers to punish erring companies.

Sebi chairman D R Mehta also warned the corporate sector saying, "the compliance culture must start and corporates must realise that they have to comply with the rules."

"The world is moving towards a single regulator concept. Thirteen countries have already adopted the Financial Services Authority model. We are not even thinking in that direction," he said at a felicitation function, organised by the Federation of Indian Stock Exchanges in New Delhi.

He said overlapping of regulatory functions of Reserve Bank on India, Sebi and the Department of Company Affairs had led to misuse of regulations by many companies.

Mehta admitted that two of his "failures" were that he was unable to do much on investor education and not able to acquire enough powers.

Till 1995, only seven companies were punished for wrong-doing whereas during his tenure the number rose to hundreds a year.

Mehta, whose term in Sebi ends this month, said he would not like to take another extension, and added the Indian market has been modernised with 100 per cent online trading, demat and introduction of derivatives and rolling settlement.

Moreover, he said, Sebi had taken many measures for investor protection including complaints resolutions. "Of the total 2.7 million complaints Sebi received in the last 10 years, it was able to settle 2.6 million," Mehta said.

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