Even as domestic stock exchanges have come a long away in setting up surveillance systems, little attention has been paid to the aspect of enforceability, managing director of the Interconnected Stock Exchange (ICSE) Joseph Massey said. ``We are powerless when it comes to ensuring compliance at the client level,'' he added.

Participating in the panel discussion, senior executive director of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) L K Singhvi called for a regime for preventive compliance. He emphasised the need for effective compliance at thelower rung of the regulation pyramid and suggested a rule-book and surveillance systems at the intermediary level that could be subject to inspection by SEBI and the concerned self regulatory body.

Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) President Anand Rathi also felt the laws were not adequate to empower the exchanges to go beyond surveillance mechanism. While surveillance systems can identify price manipulations or attempts to rig prices, regulations are handicapped to proceed beyond that, he said.