Stock market regulator Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is gearing up to meet the rising challenge of the expanding stock market. Sebi will soon recruit 100 professionals from various business schools and law colleges across the country to strengthen regulatory operations of the financial market. The regulator has already recruited more than 100 professionals in the last few months, Sebi chairman M Damodaran said on Wednesday.
During an interaction with the media after a workshop for market participants on Certification of Associated Persons in the Securities Markets here, Damodaran said some of the professionals have left the regulator to join financial market. ?But, we have recruited more than 100 professionals and another hundred will be recruited soon,? he said.
Reacting to a recent USAID-NISM?s report on capital market, which stated that Sebi lacked the required level of trained staff to conduct effective surveillance, investigation and enforcement, Damodaran said 18 months ago he had proposed to separate surveillance operations from Sebi. ?It will be difficult to implement some of the decisions, but it does not deter us from the implementation of these decisions,? he said.
The principles in certification of associated persons in the securities market has been derived from the experience in the UK, the US and Singapore. Sebi has also promoted the National Institute of Securities Market (NISM ) to create awareness about the capital market and to co-ordinate the task of certification in domestic securities market.
The certification has been mandated for distributors of mutual funds, traders in the derivatives segment and depository participants and will be valid for three years. NISM will maintain a complete data base of all market participants who have been certified. The existing market players need to be certified within two years and the new entrants will have to get certification within a year from the notification date of October 2007 of this new norm.