By Jayshree P Upadhyay
MUMBAI (Reuters) -Ananth Narayan G, the Indian regulatory official who led the high-profile investigation of alleged market manipulation by U.S. high-frequency trading firm Jane Street, stepped down on Thursday at the end of his three-year term.
Narayan, the second ranking official at the Securities and Exchange Board of India, headed market regulation and the department dealing with foreign investors.
After two decades at top foreign banks, Narayan joined the SEBI in October 2022, spearheading a raft of measures to cool activity in India’s red-hot derivatives markets and pushing for greater disclosures by investment vehicles and offshore funds.
Narayan will hand over the Jane Street investigation, which the markets regulator has said is at a critical juncture and where the final order could be much wider in scope.
In one of the strongest regulatory actions taken against a foreign investor, SEBI on July 4 temporarily suspended Jane Street from trading in the local securities market saying the firm had manipulated indexes. The U.S. firm has denied the charge.
Jane Street, which according to a public statement made $10.1 billion in net trading revenue in the second quarter, has filed an appeal against the markets regulator for not providing documents that are crucial to its defense in the case.
An Indian court on September 9 directed SEBI to file a response to the appeal, effectively hitting a pause on the regulator’s final orders until the matter is heard by the court on November 18.
Narayan will also leave key reforms for his successor to take forward, including efforts to streamline processes for foreign investors and steps to cool retail participation in equity derivatives, where more than 90% of traders suffer losses.
The markets regulator is considering elongating the maturity of derivative contracts and introducing product suitability rules to limit retail activity in riskier segments, Reuters had reported in August.
(Reporting by Jayshree P Upadhyay; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)
