'It is like a chicken-and-egg situation.' 'All these product tweaks are innovative, but traders won't move unless there is liquidity.' 'And liquidity cannot be generated until traders move.'

Zaggle Prepaid, Cyient DLM, Healthvista India, Rashi Peripherals and Vishwaraj Sugar Industries have obtained the green signal to launch their initial public offerings (IPOs). The approvals come at a time when capital raising by way of IPOs has slowed to a crawl, with only four issues hitting the market so far this calendar year. Recently, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) issued final observation letters on their draft red herring prospectuses (DRHPs), which is akin to getting approval to hit the markets.

The market share of discount brokers - such as Zerodha, Groww, Upstox, and Angel One - has grown fivefold in five financial years, with more than half of the National Stock Exchange's (NSE's) active client trading coming through them, reveals a report by CLSA. For the first 11 months of 2022-23, discount brokers held sway over 57 per cent of active clients, up from 11 per cent in 2017-18. Moreover, the number of active clients on the NSE with discount brokers has grown from just 1 million to 19 million during this period. Active traders are those who have traded at least once in 12 months.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has notified stricter timelines of just seven working days for foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) to disclose vital information. This could include informing their custodians about any false or misleading information about the fund or disclosing any change in structure or common ownership, or control of the investor group. The new changes have been brought into effect from March 14 through a notification amending the Sebi (FPIs) Regulations.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) are likely to seek from the finance ministry a six-month extension of the date for complying with the amendments to the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act (PMLA), citing implementation challenges. Sources said FPIs, through their custodians, were planning to approach the ministry, highlighting key concerns and seeking more clarification. The ministry, through a notification on March 7, lowered the threshold for reporting ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) for non-profit organisations and politically exposed persons to 10 per cent from 25 per cent.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has proposed measures mandating daily upstreaming of all investor funds from stockbrokers to clearing corporations (CCs). The step, aimed at reducing risk on client funds, will further deplete brokers' revenues as they will lose interest income with transfers being done daily. At present, stockbrokers convert the surplus funds into bank guarantees (BG) or fixed deposit (FD) receipts which earns them extra income.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Tuesday imposed a penalty of Rs 26 crore on Coffee Day Enterprises (CDEL) for alleged violation of securities laws. The regulator also directed the company to initiate steps to recover dues of Rs 3,535 crore-the amount diverted from seven subsidiaries of CDEL to Mysore Amalgamated Coffee Estates (MACEL). Affirming the violations of the Sebi (Prevention of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices) Regulations and Sebi (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, whole-time member Ashwani Bhatia said the listed company was being run like a personal fiefdom with no checks and balances in place.

To become a sponsor-free AMC, a MF must have positive liquid net worth and net profit of at least Rs 10 crore in all of the preceding five years.

Regulatory capacity, hyperactivity and excessive prescription are the biggest challenges the financial sector is facing, said Meleveetil Damodaran, former chairperson, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). Speaking at the Business Standard BFSI Summit on Wednesday, Damodaran highlighted the need for simpler, clear, and continuous regulations in the financial sector. He opined that the industry had felt it challenging to keep pace with the changing regulations.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has plans to give a fillip to disclosure requirements to encourage better information symmetry at listed firms. Under the current regulations, companies need to disclose any event such as acquisition, merger, demerger, restructuring, or sale of any unit which will have an impact on the business. In its consultation paper dated November 12, Sebi has proposed new thresholds for so-called 'material disclosures'.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is working on a new payment system for the secondary market, which could prevent brokers from accessing their client funds. It will be on the lines of the Application Supported by Blocked Amount (ASBA) process used for subscribing to initial public offerings (IPOs), where funds move out of an investor's bank account only after the trade is confirmed. Sebi chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch on Wednesday said that despite the challenges, the new system would be ready in a few months.