(Reuters) -India’s market regulator will further simplify regulations for foreign investors to encourage long-term capital flows into the country, the Securities and Exchange Board of India said in its annual report published on Tuesday.
Last week, the SEBI proposed a single-window clearance and access to India’s securities markets for overseas investors such as government-owned foreign investment firms, sovereign wealth funds and firms that pool funds from retail investors, who belong to the low-risk category.
That could encourage greater foreign participation, the SEBI had said.
The regulator will also undertake a comprehensive exercise to rationalize and optimize existing regulations this year, the annual report added.
To ease the compliance burden, focus will be on identifying and removing regulatory redundancies, the regulator said.
Earlier this month, the SEBI had proposed easier disclosures as well as needing shareholder nod for low-value transactions between interconnected entities, or “related parties”.
The regulator also said in its annual report that it would upgrade its cybersecurity infrastructure to help snuff out any threats and anomalies in trading activity.
SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said last month that the regulator is enhancing its surveillance to scrutinize manipulation in derivatives trading, days after it barred U.S. firm Jane Street from the local markets over manipulation of stock indexes.
The SEBI, meanwhile, also flagged concerns over high trading activity in index options on the expiry day, “when premiums are very small.”
An average of 90% index options trading happens on the expiry day of the contract, with 30% being traded in the last 60 minutes, regulatory data showed.
(Reporting by Jayshree P Upadhyay in Mumbai and Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Anil D’Silva)
