Sebi on Monday announced expanding the Qualified Stock Broker (QSB) framework that will bring more brokers under enhanced obligations, a move aimed at bolstering the trust of investors in the securities market.
The decision will also help in strengthening the compliance culture among stock brokers.
Now, the parameters of proprietary trading volumes, compliance and grievance redressal scores will also be taken into account while classifying stock brokers as QSBs, according to a circular.
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At present, there are five parameters for classifying a stock broker under the QSB framework — total number of active clients, available total assets of clients, trading volumes of the stock broker (excluding the proprietary trading volume of the stock broker), and the end of day margin obligations of all clients.
The margin obligations exclude the proprietary margin obligation of the stock broker concerned in all segments.
QSBs are required to meet various enhanced obligations and discharge responsibilities to ensure appropriate governance structure, risk management policy and processes, robust cyber security framework.
In the circular announcing the enhanced QSB framework, Sebi said it is part of “measures to instill trust in securities market”. The move also comes against the backdrop of instances of alleged misdoings by some stock brokers.
“Once the revised list of QSBs is released, those QSBs which no longer belong to the list, shall continue to comply with the enhanced obligations and responsibilities, for an additional period of 3 financial years or such time, as may be specified by Market Infrastructure Institutions (MIIs), in consultation with Sebi,” the circular said.
The regulator said the latest provisions will come into force in a risk-based, staggered manner to ensure smooth adoption and effective implementation for all the QSBs by providing enough time for them, based on their size, for making necessary changes.
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As part of strengthening the compliance culture among stock brokers, Sebi said it has also been decided to facilitate stock brokers to voluntarily get designated as QSBs, who otherwise would not have qualified to become QSBs.
For designating stock brokers as QSBs, the applicable date will be September 1 of the subsequent year with respect to two parameters — compliance score and grievance redressal score.
The rest of the parameters will be applicable on June 1 of the subsequent year.
On February 24, Sebi Whole Time Member Kamlesh Chandra Varshney cautioned against manipulations in the capital market and urged brokers to keep a tab and prevent such instances.
At that time, he had also emphasised the importance of investor trust and said if there is no trust of investors, “everything will fail”.
Manipulations are going on and Sebi cannot intervene in all of them. Some brokers are involved and the broker community should keep an eye as “bad elements can come into the system”, he had said.
Clamping down on misdoings, the markets watchdog has been taking action against various entities for manipulations, including front-running activities.