Underscoring the importance of trust and transparency, new Sebi chief Tuhin Kanta Pandey on Friday said proper disclosures are important and promised that Sebi will now onwards reveal conflict of interests of its employees in general and that of the board members in particular.
The statement, the first since Pandey assumed office last Saturday, assumes importance as his predecessor Madabhi Puri-Buch’s final months got mired in a litany of controversies, including that of conflict of interests and alleged favouritism to some companies where her husband Dhaval had commercial relationships and of lack of disclosures about her private investments and other income.
“We need to be more transparent about issues of conflict of interests at the board level. Accordingly, we’ll be coming out with our own plans to further transparently reveal conflict of interests, if any, to the public,” Pandey said at a Moneycontrol- roganised event here on Friday. “When I say teamwork, it not only includes the teamwork within Sebi but also with various participants, investor bodies, the market participants, market infrastructure institutions,” he said.
Buch was accused of bringing in a toxic work culture by her officers who took out protest marches last September seeking her ouster. This followed many allegations against her by the now defunct US short-seller Hindenburg Research last August and the Congress Party’s allegations of favouritism to some companies like M&M with which Dhaval had commercial relationships and also income from her previous employers. The Sebi employees accused her shouting at them and humiliating them at official meetings.
Pandey said he looks forward to engaging with all stakeholders to discuss what more needs to be taken to encourage voluntary compliance. Encapsulating his idea of teamwork, he said, “Sebi plus others” and gave a broader idea on Sebi’s future approach to policymaking, technology adoption, investor awareness, and financial inclusion. He said reforms need not necessarily be “big bang” ones as small, incremental reforms can also be important.
On his other priorities, he said Sebi will support innovation, improve efficiency and transparency to protect investors with the support of technology. “Sebi has taken several measures to reduce systemic risks and to protect investors. Broadly, the reforms are aimed at improving efficiency and transparency in market. For this, we have also used technology in a big way.” Stating that Sebi will continue to work on investor awareness, Pandey said, “an informed-investor is well-protected. Our effort in the days ahead will be to create awareness among both existing and prospective investors.”
“Increasing participation of domestic institutional investors has led to greater domestic ownership, making our markets more resilient,” he said.