The Securities and Exchange Board of India has conducted a major search operation against a prominent financial influencer in Mumbai, disclosed Kamlesh Varshney, the regulator’s whole-time member, while speaking at a FICCI event on Thursday.
Varshney said that while SEBI does not usually comment on individual cases, the operation was part of its broader enforcement drive to strengthen market discipline.
“We have carried out a big search operation on some big name in this industry. Enforcement action is not for revenue collection. The purpose is to create deterrence and show that the regulator is watching,” he stated.
On financial influencers, Varshney distinguished between genuine educators and those misguiding investors.
If one is giving guaranteed return performance, investment calls, or using live market data in the classroom, then it cannot do that without SEBI registration. “But if you are only educating, we welcome that as part of investor education,” he clarified.
He also confirmed that Sebi is working on new initiatives, including examining a framework to regulate grey market trades in pre-IPO shares, which could help in price discovery and tax compliance.
Discussions on possible changes in derivatives contract tenures, he said, will be handled through a consultative process.
Varshney pointed out that the regulator is investing in advanced expertise, including hiring PhD scholars, to analyse complex market manipulations such as gamma trades and other high-frequency strategies.
Referring to past enforcement actions such as the Jane Street case, he stressed that such investigations are detailed and time-consuming because findings must withstand scrutiny in courts of law.
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