Unlike his predecessor, UK Sinha organised only one such meeting in the last 16 mths

Unlike his predecessor, UK Sinha, the current chief of capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), seems to be a little less eager in conducting investor meets. Under Sinha?s watch, Sebi has held just a single meeting with Sebi-recognised investor associations in the last sixteen months. Sinha took over from CB Bhave in February 2011.

For the past few years, Sebi has been conducting these investor meets once every quarter or at least three times a year, according to market participants. The last time Sebi met up with the Sebi-recognised investor associations was in December last year.

The meeting came after a year-long gap, with the previous meeting being held in December 2010. Sebi has not offered any detailed explanation to any of these associations for the prolonged gap in holding the meets. An email sent to Sebi went unanswered at the time of going to press.

These meetings serve as an important bridge between investors and the capital market regulator, as issues and grievances concerning small investors, especially those that may have slipped the attention of the regulator, are highlighted by the respective investor associations. At present, there are 26 of such Sebi-recognised investor associations.

?Sebi informs us about a meeting more than a month in advance. The regulator puts together and shares with us a broad agenda and we, in turn, then write to them about issues that need to be considered,? said AP Bakliwal, president, Bombay Shareholders’ Association.

Investor meets have been instrumental in ringing in several important investor-friendly initiatives such as changes in client-broker agreement, modifications in arbitration procedures and a directive to ensure brokers maintain a zero balance in their client?s trading accounts at the end of every quarter.

?We were quite happy with the outcome of these meets. Sebi was taking our suggestions quite positively. But the interactions reduced considerably after Sinha came on board,? said another person.