SEBI Chief's Warning: Why Clean Books Build Investor Trust Amid Market Risks

Addressing the 'Morningstar Investment Conference India 2025' here, the SEBI chief said, "Today's investors expect not just access to the market, but access on fair terms, that gains transparency in dealings, transaction execution, and payouts.”

“The strongest and most respected firms will be those that see compliance not as a ceiling, but as a foundation. Building upon it should be a culture of integrity, resilience and transparency that earns investor trust every day,” he remarked.

He further stated that there was a need for stronger compliance, risk identification, data protection, and timely grievance redressal and SEBI was reviewing Stock Brokers Regulations, 1992 with this in mind.

“Institutions must recognise that the ultimate measure of success lies in the experience and confidence of investors, checking how properly advances are resolved, how accurately settlements occur, and how transparently disclosures are reported,” he observed.

He highlighted that financial intermediaries must ensure that “investor protection and market integrity” translate into real life discourse since any erosion in investor trust will lead to a loss of liquidity in the market.

Pandey also said that SEBI was looking into the MCX glitch. “The root cause analysis is underway; such incidents should not occur," he remarked.

The Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX) faced operational disruptions last week due to a technical issue, which delayed the start of trading by over four hours and necessitated a shift to its Disaster Recovery (DR) site. The outage affected trading in key commodity contracts, including gold, silver, crude oil, and base metals such as copper, zinc, and aluminium.

Besdies, Pandey highlighted that cybersecurity remains a major concern amid accelerating digital adoption and global market linkages,. “Firms must safeguard sensitive client data and critical infrastructure from sophisticated threats. Third party and outsourcing risks have grown with greater reliance on technology vendors and service providers, requiring stronger oversight and due diligence,” he pointed out.

He further stated that while algorithmic and high-frequency trading are bringing efficiency in the markets they are also leading to new vulnerabilities. "Intermediaries must also ensure operational resilience, maintaining business continuity and readiness amid market volatility,” the SEBI chief added.

- IANS