Will continue taking steps to protect investors: Sebi

Even as more details emerge out of the multi-crore housing-finance scam, market regulator Sebi today said it would continue to take steps to protect the interest of investors'.

"Regulator's job is investor protection. So, we (will) continue to take steps to protect investors," Sebi whole-time member Prashant Saran told reporters on the sidelines of Assocham summit.
 
He further said, "Sebi already looks into the market dynamics... Whenever we find something, we investigate. That is what we do."
 
His comments accompany the volatility in stockmarkets in the aftermath of the housing-finance scandal; Popular BSE index Sensex has nosedived 640 points in the past three trading sessions. Further, continuing its downward journey, it plunged by another 114.73 points at 1430 hours today.

The housing-finance scam came to light this week, when on November 24 the CBI busted a major housing loan racket and arrested among others, CEO of LIC Housing Finance Ramachandran Nair, on charges of corruption and criminal conspiracy.
 
The officials were arrested on allegations that while sanctioning large scale loans to corporates, they were working in collusion with loan arranger firm Money Matters and overlooked regulatory guidelines for granting such approvals, for their individual monetary gains.
 
Apart from Nair, Secretary (Investment), LIC, Naresh K Chopra, General Manager of Bank of India (Delhi) R N Tayal, Director of Central Bank of India, Maninder Singh Johar, and Deputy GM of Punjab National Bank (Delhi) Venkoba Gujjal were also manned.
 
Rajesh Sharma, Chairman and Managing Director of Mumbai -based firm Money Matters Ltd and two of its employees -- Suresh Gattani and Sanjay Sharma-- were also arrested.