The Securities and Exchange Board of India on Tuesday suspended fresh registrations for unique identification number under Sebi regulations 2003, better known as Mapin. The suspension comes into effect from July 1.

A committee has been constituted to examine the issues related to obtaining UIN under Mapin, a Sebi statement said.

Mapin is a central database of market participants and investors with the UIN, which contains biometric identification details like fingerprints.

The database was launched on November 25, 2003 by former Sebi chairman G N Bajpai. Mapin aimed at achieving the twin objectives of developing an inventory of market participants and investors as well as setting up a standard for client code.

As per the Mapin guidelines, all resident investors and foreign institutional investors, which conduct any securities market transaction valued at Rs 100,000 or above are required to obtain a Mapin UIN before December 31, 2005.

However, the market regulator faced protests against it from all quarters. Brokers said their families found the identification process unacceptable. Only 2,000 intermediaries have registered so far even though Sebi expected to set up an initial database of 70,000.

The regulations placed a mandatory obligation on intermediaries, their employees and other entities like listed companies and specified investors under the jurisdiction of Sebi to obtain UIN under Mapin database.

The guidelines specified that if these entities failed to get the UIN, they would not be permitted to continue doing business.

Back to square one

• Mapin was to develop an inventory of market participants and investors, and set up a standard for client code
• It became mandatory for intermediaries, their employees, listed firms and specified investors under Sebi jurisdiction to obtain UIN under Mapin
• Move faced protests with only 2,000 registering so far against Sebi's 70,000 initial database target