In your interview with Dr RH Patil, chairman of Clearing Corporation of India (?Simpler Sebi disclosure norms will give a push to corporate debt trading?, Dec 21), certain references pertaining to Sebi tend to give a misleading picture.
It has been stated in the interview that ?Sebi is not touching the aspect? related to simplification of the corporate debt issuance procedure. This is baseless. Sebi has undertaken a series of discussions with other regulators, stock exchanges, issuers and various market participants on simplification of regulations relating to issuance, listing and trading of corporate bonds. Sebi is also on the task of providing for ?shelf prospectus?, which may significantly reduce the time and cost of issuance. Extending this facility to all issuers will require an amendment to the Companies Act, which Sebi has taken up with the Government of India (GoI). The issue of extending private placements to more than 49 persons also needs an amendment to the Act, which has also been brought to the GoI?s notice.
The notion that Sebi has restricted bond trading platforms only to the exchanges is incorrect. So far, permission has been granted only to NSE and BSE for setting up such platforms in line with directions from the GoI. The GoI has also clarified that all investors, including banks, may deal through brokers while transacting corporate bonds. On receiving a request, Sebi has given permission to Fixed Income Money Market & Derivatives Association of India, making it the third trade reporting platform. Moreover, we have raised no objection to other entities like I-Cap, Reuters and Bloomberg setting up such platforms.
?N Hariharan, General manager, Sebi
