Sebi relaxes certain disclosure requirements for brokers

Regulator Sebi today relaxed certain disclosure requirements for stock brokers and depository participants under the enhanced supervision guidelines. [caption id=“attachment_2649272” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Reuters[/caption] The requirements, which were introduced by the markets regulator in September 2016, came into effect from 1 April this year. Following representations from market participants, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has made certain relaxations. Now, stock brokers would not be required to provide details of bank accounts holding their own funds to the exchanges. The same would be applicable to demat accounts having the stock brokers’ own securities. Among others, “naming proprietary bank/ demat accounts of the stock broker as ‘Stock Broker- Proprietary Account’ is voluntary”, Sebi said in a circular today. According to the regulator, a stock broker that is also a bank “may be required to report to the stock exchanges only those bank accounts that are used for their stock broking activities”.