Sebi's move to enhance supervision of brokers to put extra burden: Anmi

A grouping of stock brokers has said that Sebi's new directive, which asks brokers to upload information related to client funds lying with them on a weekly basis, will put extra burden on them. Voicing concerns over the directive, the Association of National Exchanges Members of India (Anmi), in a letter to the markets regulator Sebi said that the main purpose of monitoring will become more difficult with the new directive. Currently, brokers need to upload information related to client funds lying with them on a monthly basis. From April 1, they need to upload this on a weekly basis.

The move is a part of Sebi's effort to enhance supervision of stock brokers to check fund diversion. This information included the aggregate value of client fund balance, collateral, credit and debit balances in all the client accounts among others. According to Anmi, current system of uploading data on a monthly basis is going smoothly to the satisfaction of exchanges and the regulator. "This monthly uploading is sufficient for monitoring purpose by the authorities concerned. Further, we submit that weekly uploading that too within next three days of the closing of the week will lead to frequent uploading and the main purpose of monitoring will become difficult," as per the letter written to Sebi Chairman Ajay Tyagi last month. Anmi is of the view that focus of business development and other issues will be affected to a greater extent if the brokers switch over to weekly uploading. "GST implementation has not taken place completely and further preparations for this also takes most of our members' time and hence weekly uploading of data will put extra burden on brokers," the brokers' body noted.

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