The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) struck down the registration of 72 entities as research analysts, the Indian markets regulator announced. The registrations lapsed due to the failure to pay the renewal fees, thereby invalidating their certifications.
According to the market watchdog, they doubled down on the cancellations to prevent the “misuse of their expired certificate of registration with Sebi on unaware investors.” This action came after SEBI issued the 72 in question with show-cause notices back in February.
The noticees were registered as “research analysts” with the regulator as per the SEBI (Research Analyst) regulation of 2014. However, SEBI norms dictate that the registered research analyst has to remit a renewal fee after every five years to keep the registration.
The 72 noticees failed to pay the renewal fees, thereby “flouted the intermediaries rules”, it said in a notice attributed to SEBI Chief General Manager Bithin Mahanta.
The watchdog organisation further pressed the the 72 entities to keep ready all records and documents in relation to investor grievance redressal, and transfer of records, funds, and securities of their respective clients.
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Earlier this week, SEBI went on a penalty-slapping spree. Overall, the watchdog asked seven entities to pay a total of ₹35 lakh for dubious trades in the BSE illiquid stock options segment.
SEBI slaps ₹5 lakh fine each on Shyamal Kishore Agarwal, Pankaj Kumar Agarwal, Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Raj Kumar Nemani, Nina Nag, Subhranshu Roy HUF, and Ratan Lal Sipani HUF after it found significant trade reversals in illiquid stock options thereby bumping up trade volume.
This triggered an investigation on the options segment from April 2014 to September 2015, where SEBI uncovered multiple instances of reversal trades that went against the Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices (PFUTP) norms.
The market regulator, in another order slapped a ₹10 lah fine on a SEBI-registered research analyst, Nikhil Dayanand Baljekar, for allegedly violating market norms in an investigation of activities between April 2022 and January 2024. Another ₹4 lakh was fined on Basant Maheshwari Wealth Advisers LLP (BMWAL) for alleged regulatory norm violations in a separate order.